Category Archives: Math 90

Math 90: Concluding Remarks

All is said and done with Math 90 for 2012, and the year is coming to a close. I wanted to take this moment to write a few things about the course, what seemed to go well and what didn’t, and certain trends in the course. that I think are interesting and illustrative.

First, we might just say some of the numbers. Math 90 is offered only as pass/fail, with the possibility of ‘passing with distinction’ if you did exceptionally well (I’ll say what that meant here, though who knows what it means in general). We had four people fail, three people ‘pass with distinction,’ and everyone else got a passing mark. Everything else will be after the fold.

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Math 90: Week 8

Today, we had a set of problems as usual, and a quiz! (And I didn’t tell you about the quiz, even though others did, so I’m going to pretend that it was a pop quiz)!. Below, you’ll find the three problems, their solutions, and a worked-out quiz.

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Math 90: Week 7

I haven’t quite yet finished writing up the solutions to the problems we did in class yesterday. But I wanted to go ahead an make the solutions to the test available. They can be found here.

But please note that there is an error in the key! In particular, on problem 7(b), I forgot that we only care about $t geq 0$. So the final answer should not include $t = 1/2$.
The notes for the day are after the fold: (more…)

Math 90: Week 5

A few administrative notes before we review the day’s material: I will not be holding office hours this Wednesday. And there are no classes next Monday, when my usual set of office hours are. But I’ve decided to do a sort of experiment: I don’t plan on reviewing for the exam specifically next week, but a large portion of the class has said that they would come to office hours on Monday if I were to have them. So I’m going to hold them to that – I’ll be in Kassar House 105 (the MRC room) from 7-8:30 (or so, later perhaps if there are a lot of questions), and this will dually function as my office hours and a sort of review session.

But this comes with a few strings attached: firstly, I’ll be willing to answer any question, but I’m not going to prepare a review; secondly, if there is poor turnout, then this won’t happen again. Alrighty!

The rest is after the fold –

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Math 90: Week 4

It was quiz-day!

The class did pretty well on the quiz. I wrote the quiz, and I’m pleased with the skill-level demonstrated. The average was about a 77%, and the median was an 80%. (For stat-witty folk, this means that the lower scores were somehow ‘lower’ than the average scores).

Anyhow, the solutions to the day’s problems and the quiz are below the fold:

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Math 90: Week 3

First and foremost: There is a quiz next week during recitation! What is it over? you might ask. Any material from any of the first three homework sets (i.e. all material covered in lecture up to Tuesday September 25th) will be fair game.

Someone asked me in office hours this week: “Why do you end your posts with something about a ‘fold’?” I mention a ‘fold’ to indicate that there is more to the post, and that you should click on the name of the post or on the not-so-subtle (more…) at the bottom for the rest. Fittingly, the rest is after the fold:

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Math 90: Week 2

Yes, although it’s the second week of class, this is after the first recitation.

In addition, I can now announce my office hours. They are from 7-8PM on Monday in Kassar House room 105 and 12:30-1:30PM on Wednesday in my office (number 18, my name is on the door) in the basement of the Kassar House. To get in the building on Monday, you should look at the MRC page, and in particular at this (shaky youtube) video.

After my evening recitation, I’ll post up the problems I gave out in class and their solutions. Please feel free to ask any questions you want here. The details are included after the fold:

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