Thu Oct 18 13:58:42 2001 : Excellent course, well taught, well organized.

Mon Oct 22 11:55:06 2001 : Both of last week's lectures were really, really great.

Wed Oct 24 00:23:18 2001 : 1. The homework is often unmotivated. For example, the problems on Dedekind rings suddenly have some significance if we're told that the motivating example the ring of integers in Q[\sqrt{D}]. There are all sorts of nice problems in algebraic number theory that would nicely motivate this topic. Maybe it's just me, but algebra itself isn't nearly as exciting as its applications... 2. The lectures are enjoyable, but they're occasionally uneven in the speed in which they cover the material. You spent 25 minutes today extending a rather easy notion (the content of a polynomial) from Z to Q, while other days I've been fairly confused. Of course this varies among students and it's probably impossible to please everyone. Best, nick

Wed Oct 24 10:33:01 2001 : a while ago i heard a rumor that you were considering making the next midterm take-home. the point of this note is to encourage you to do so. the density of students in our classroom is too high for comfortable testing.

Wed Oct 24 13:38:00 2001 : I would prefer to have an in-class exam, because (for me at least) it is a better environment in which to work effectively on the problems.

Wed Oct 24 15:35:39 2001 : Take home exam sounds as a good idea. Only concern: I, for example, often forget the time when I'm working on problems. So I might spend something like 3hr 20-30 min on it instead of allowed 3hr. Of course I would not do it intentionally. However, slight things like that do not overweigh advantages of the idea.

Thu Oct 25 06:41:21 2001 : the plan for the take-home exam sounds good to me

Thu Oct 25 08:58:06 2001 : don't you think it's just a little bit ridiculous that you give us one week to read an entire opaque chapter of this book, understand it, and answer all of these exercises? we do have other classes and research that occupy our time. we can't just spend all of our time on this class. sincerely, a concerned student

Fri Oct 26 15:06:29 2001 : Could the final exam be a take-home, since neither of the midterms are?

Sun Oct 28 10:24:51 2001 : Could you please post solutions for homework #6? Thank you.

Mon Oct 29 12:02:36 2001 : To echo the complaints/concerns of the "concerned student" quoted in the most recent homework solutions, I too think that the homework has gotten a little ridiculous lately. In particular, the last two assignments have been given in such a manner that it was necessary to learn EVERYTHING necessary to solve them on our own, whereas in the earlier assignments you had at least given some amount of class time to their subject matter. The Dedekind ring problems, for example, took a very long time to understand the basic concepts involved, before even attempting the problems themselves. To expand on these concerns, in the most recent homework solutions you reference four outside texts. I recently overheard another student in the class describe his manner of solving the problems as "find a text which solves them, understand it, then write them up". I am starting to see why. Is this the actual intention of the assignments, and should I be using outside texts more? Are the problems meant to be little research endeavors? I'm sorry I don't have anything more constructive to say, Another concerned student

Mon Oct 29 18:02:54 2001 : thanks for not assigning homework during exam week!! :)

Mon Oct 29 20:30:34 2001 : At the moderately elementary level of this course, algebra is difficult principally in that it takes some basic mathematical intuitions and pulls them out of the integers, the real numbers, and so forth into a much more abstract realm. Solving a problem in this course is usually equivalent to understanding what it is saying! This motivates my echoes of two students' earlier comments: 1. More time should be devoted to examples of functorial representations, Dedekind rings, projective modules, &c. Without knowing what concrete, familiar objects are being generalized in the definitions of these things, I have no idea what properties to expect of them (or what significance to attach to those properties named by Lang). 2. Since time needs to be taken away from some part of the course to satisfy (1), less time should be spent on topics like polynomials (as covered last week) which involve relatively little terminological obfuscation. This is a grad course; it is fair to expect students to be more clever than comfortable. Therefore the focus should be on the shocking new concepts (such as coproducts in categories!) rather than on the details of elementary theorems in familiar settings. Granted, the Eisenstein refresher was nice. :) I'm enjoying this course as much as any I've ever taken. I make these suggestions because I would like to understand more of the material which is going over my head!

Tue Oct 30 16:04:54 2001 : I support that comment from 10/26 - can we have a take-home final?

Tue Oct 30 16:46:31 2001 : About take home-final: I'm for it.

Tue Oct 30 18:24:19 2001 : I would be in favor of a take-home final if the time limit was on the scale of days, not hours, and the questions made accordingly difficult. Something like a non-collaborative, closed-book homework assignment.

Tue Oct 30 18:32:45 2001 : I'm really not excited about the idea of a take home final. Three hours should be plenty of time to solve several problems which are representative of the material of the class.

Tue Oct 30 19:48:38 2001 : In response to 18:24:29 - the problem with take-home exams with time limits on the scale of days is that if the problems are too difficult the student is left with two options: give up and pray for a nice curve, or simply keep working at it for as long as it takes. The first option has obvious disadvantages and while the second doesn't sound too bad, the time spent working on the exam can come at the expense of other things(other classes, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc.) Now, I'm not saying that Professor Ribet would inflict such an exam on us, but if he does decide to go this route, I'd urge him to be extra-careful.

Wed Oct 31 11:15:05 2001 : I think the idea of a take home final is a good one.

Wed Oct 31 13:02:04 2001 : i am also strongly in favor of a take-home final. [Message repeated a large number of times.]

Wed Oct 31 13:12:58 2001 : I am also for take home final.

Wed Oct 31 13:36:41 2001 : I would favor an in-class final. If a take home final is used I would strongly prefer a time limit scaled in hours, not days. One of my worst memories as an undergraduate was an Algebra take-home final where I got four hours of sleep in a three day period. I will also note the drop box has it's problems as an opinion sample (Clearly over 100 different students didn't submit identical messages in the same three minute period this afternoon, but other duplications may be less obvious).

Thu Nov 1 13:21:32 2001 : I would strongly prefer an in-class final. It's more comfortable knowing that everyone is suffering together. Also, I agree with the above comments regarding take-home finals draining away one's life.

Thu Nov 1 17:29:32 2001 : What exactly does "if you're not too tired" mean?

Fri Nov 2 00:09:57 2001 : Regarding the final: if the purpose of this class is to prepare us to be "working mathematicians", I think it makes more sense to assign problems that are meant to be considered over a longer period of time; figure out what the qeustion is asking, have a cup of coffee, think about it some more, work through some relevant examples, etc. This approach would eliminate the guess-work of figuring out what topics to study, instead requiring us to understand some deeper, more interesting problems in a few selected areas.

Fri Nov 2 10:05:33 2001 : I favor take home final. I think in class exams is not good indicator of my knowledge on subject. Also at home i feel more comfortable working on problems. Thanks.

Fri Nov 2 23:58:36 2001 : I strongly prefer an in-class final, cos it's more fair this way.

Sat Nov 3 15:16:21 2001 : It has been noticed that technially straightforward staff is thoroughly covered in lectures, while heavily abstract section are often not even mentioned. Is this a pedagogical strategy? I also strongly support the comment about motivation. Examples in Lang are either trivial or too complicated to understand. If you could come up with interesting, moderately challenging or just "not too trivial" ones it would help immensly. Take-home final with "think for couple of days" problems is good for grad students taking 2 courses, but for an undegrad with say 4 it's a bad option. I think take-home "couple of hours" final is the best choice.

Sun Nov 4 21:58:42 2001 : TAKE HOME FINAL!!!!!

Sun Nov 4 22:05:23 2001 : I'm really like your lecturing style. I find that you do a particularly good job of choosing examples and answering questions (and unlike some professors, you explain the question). The classroom atmosphere is always very comfortable, and you seem responsive to student suggestions (such as less homework).

Mon Nov 5 15:17:56 2001 : Thanks for the HW extention!

Mon Nov 5 19:47:44 2001 : I would prefer an open-book (Lang, only) in-class final. I think that it is important that you make the exam short enough so that an average student will feel comfortable with the time. When an exam is too long, students may not have a chance to think about all of the problems, and/or students may panic and do worse than they otherwise might on the problems that they do attempt to answer. I am not exactly sure what the purpose of these exams are, but my guess is that making a shorter exam will not defeat the purpose of having them. By the way, I think that you are doing a great job. I am enjoying the course despite the time committment entailed and the mountains of work associated (I'm sure that it will all pay off in the end). Keep up the good work!

Mon Nov 5 19:47:45 2001 : I would prefer an open-book (Lang, only) in-class final. I think that it is important that you make the exam short enough so that an average student will feel comfortable with the time. When an exam is too long, students may not have a chance to think about all of the problems, and/or students may panic and do worse than they otherwise might on the problems that they do attempt to answer. I am not exactly sure what the purpose of these exams are, but my guess is that making a shorter exam will not defeat the purpose of having them. By the way, I think that you are doing a great job. I am enjoying the course despite the time committment entailed and the mountains of work associated (I'm sure that it will all pay off in the end). Keep up the good work!

Mon Nov 5 20:07:47 2001 : I'd like to suggest either a take-home final OR an in-class exam with some choice (do n of m, for n

Tue Nov 6 13:56:33 2001 : I strongly favour a take-home final. There is less of an element of strategically guessing what is going to be on the exam, a psycological, not mathematical, exercise; the context is closer to that of what mathematicians actually do; and by wrestling with problems over an extended period one gains a deeper understanding. Excellent class. Your lectures are inspiring.

Tue Nov 6 22:29:17 2001 :

(to Prof. Ribet)

Subject: Return of MathWorld
   Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 18:48:52 -0800

Prof. Ribet,

Probably you know this already: Eric Weisstein's online math
encyclopedia is back where it used to be, at mathworld.wolfram.com,
after being obscured for legal reasons for the last year.
I wrote something (I forget what) to Weisstein a long time ago, and he
was kind enough to put my old email address into a list of "friends of
MathWorld" in the hope that he could eventually notify everyone on
that list that his site was back up!
You might want to mention MathWorld on the 250A mailing list; it
certainly helped me through first undergrad algebra at UCD.

***

(reply)

Subject: Re: Return of MathWorld
   Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 21:06:37 -0800 (PST)

Why not enter this information into the comment box on my 250A
web page?  My impression is that students in the class read the
comments.

Best,
Ken R

Wed Nov 7 13:50:14 2001 : I would strongly prefer a take-home final. No matter what the restrictions, a take-home final would suck less than sitting with 40 other people in a hot, stuffy room for 3 hours with a big cloud of impending doom hanging over our heads. (i.e., I like to be alone (and well-aerated) in my misery!) I like everything about the class except for exams. Even category theory has grown on me. Thanks for all your hard work.

Thu Nov 8 18:21:17 2001 : You're one of the best lecturers I've ever seen.

Fri Nov 9 09:04:25 2001 : this week's homework assignment?

Thu Nov 15 18:45:50 2001 : Chu-Wee did a great job today!

Thu Nov 15 21:27:26 2001 : Agreed - Chu-Wee was very clear and taught at a good speed.

Sat Nov 17 11:43:27 2001 : Don't change nothing mr Ribet for this course. A french teacher of Orleans. Good luck for the students !

Sat Nov 17 12:34:04 2001 : is there homework this week?

Wed Nov 21 01:51:05 2001 : Great lecture today. Thank you.

Mon Nov 26 21:43:43 2001 : Do we get any extra credit if we agree to go see "Lord of the Rings"?

Fri Nov 30 11:10:15 2001 : How about Proof or A Beautiful Mind?

Wed Dec 5 14:46:46 2001 : The average on the second midterm was 16.12, the median was 16 (assuming I counted the histogram correctly...)

Wed Dec 5 22:13:42 2001 : I think the grading scheme described in your email sounds very good.

Thu Dec 6 11:16:02 2001 : I support the new grading scheme.

Sat Dec 8 17:12:02 2001 : I also like the new grading policy..

Wed Dec 12 13:10:03 2001 : A quick question about the final: Will we be allowed a page of notes for the final as well? What about the two pages we used in the midterms? [Answer: two pages of notes are fine. --kr]

Wed Dec 12 20:10:28 2001 : If you're bored and frustrated with studying, take the Springer GTM Test.

Mon Dec 17 17:04:41 2001 : Could you post 2 last digits of SID as well?

Mon Dec 17 18:55:26 2001 : Last two digits of SID would be great. Also what is the cutoff for A's,B's,C's going to be? Great Course, thanks.

Mon Dec 17 19:32:13 2001 : May we pick up our finals? Answer: technically, they belong to the Regents of the University of California. However, I was told secretly that it'd be ok for you to pick them up. Math grad students will get them back in their mailboxes.

Tue Dec 18 13:26:32 2001 : Thank you for a great course. It was rough, I struggled quite a bit, but now I feel like I actually know some algebra and will be able to retain it for future use.