MA 114: Sections 5-8 (Fall 2016)

For exams and supplementary review session see the common web page for all sections of MA 114. The three uniform midterm exams and the final exam will be 120 minutes (2 hours). Bring your student ID card with you to the exams!

Consider MA 194 as a purely technical construction dealing with credit hours. All credit (detailed in the grading section) goes toward your grade for MA 114, and the pass/fail grade of MA 194 is determined as explained on the common web page.

For grading see the Grading Section on the common web page . Lecture attendance, being part of the homework score, will primarily be assessed using REEF polling. Full credit will be given if you have at most three unexcused absences during the semester for the lectures and successfully participate in the polling portion of the lectures. Each correct answer will be worth 10 points and each incorrect answer will be worth 7 point. Every class with be rescaled to the same score, and at the end of the semester the total score will be rescaled to a maximum of 50 points.

• Course Calendar.
• Here is the entire booklet of Recitation Worksheets.
• Here are some older recitation worksheets with solutions. They form a good source for practicing (courtesy of Jared Antrobus).
• Old exams.
• Login to WebWork and Introduction to WebWork.
• Series Toolbox (courtesy of Jared Antrobus).

The lecture portion of your grade is based on active participation in lecture. You will participate in class using your phone, laptop, or other device with an internet connection and browser. You will need to create a REEF Student account and purchase a subscription. A 180-day subscription costs $14.99, and can be purchased directly through REEF or by buying an access code from one of the university bookstores. If you are using REEF Polling in another class, you only need to purchase one subscription for the term. See also https://reef-education.com/get-started/for-students/ for more information about REEF polling. In order to create a REEF account or link this course to your existing REEF account, see the instructions in the announcement on canvas.

• You need a REEF education account for this class and a device for participating in class (cell phone, tablet, or laptop, or actual REEF clicker). Follow the instructions above to create your account
• Attendance in lectures and recitation is mandatory. Attend both regularly.
• Cell phones, tablets, laptops may not be used during class other than for participating in REEF pollings. In particular, texting, "tweeting", etc. are forbidden. I have the right to deduct attendance points for using cell phones or laptops during class. The same applies to reading newspapers or other activities unrelated to the course.
• To earn top grade on exam problems it is not enough to have the correct answer, but you must also show the correct reasoning.
• Classes do meet as usual on the days after an exam. Attendance rules apply as usual.
• In order to be fair to all students, dates for exams and homework assignments are firm. It is very important to take each exam on schedule. If you have a university-excused absence or a university-scheduled class conflict with our uniform examinations please fill out the alternate exam request and send it to me by email at least 10 days before the exam, so that an alternate exam can be arranged. I reserve the right to levy a 10 point penalty on your exam score if you did not inform me of the conflict within the time frame and still request an alternate exam. The same rule applies to major religious holidays.
• Absences due to illness have to be supported by a Tier 2 or Tier 3 document from UHS. The document has to be provided within one week after returning to class. If you do so, any missed homework, quizzes and recitation worksheets will count as excused, and the final score on that component will be computed by hand at the end of the semester (that is, by suitably rescaling your final score based on the remaining sets of homework or worksheets).
• Failing to provide Tier 2 or Tier 3 documentation will mean that absences, missed homework, recitation worksheets, exams are counted as unexcused.
• Study Groups and Academic Honesty: Students are encouraged to work together to understand a problem and to develop a solution. However, the solution you submit for credit must be your own work. Copying on exams and usage of books, notes, or communication devices during examinations is not allowed. Cheating or plagiarism is a serious offense and will not be tolerated. Students are responsible for knowing the University policy on cheating.

If you need more help than what can be provided by the online help of WebWork, then do not wait with seeking help. It is very hard to catch up in a Math course after falling behind. You should take one or more of the following steps:

• Talk to me before or after class or send me an email. Let me know what problems you are having, if any. I am happy to help you, but you need to let me know that you need help.
• Come to my office hours or go to the office hours of your TA.
• You can also seek help in the Mathskeller and the Study. Details are described in the Help Section of the common web page.

Class time consists of 150 minutes lectures and 150 minutes recitations per week. This makes 5 full hours of class time. The general rule of thumb for college studying says that students should spend approximately 2-3 hours of extra study time for each hour they spend in class. Thus

It is essentially impossible to passively teach mathematics; it must be actively learned. To understand what this means, consider the impossibility of learning to play tennis by listening to someone describe how to play tennis or by watching some world-class player. You will not learn the material in this course by just listening to the lectures, and thinking to yourself - "Yes, I understand that". You must work the problems and go through the difficulties before you will begin to learn. The instructor's task is that of an assistant to help you learn as much of the material as you desire.

Form good study skills from the start! See the Study Advice Section on the common web page.

• Read the text and your notes after lecture. Go through them thoroughly to check if you really understand the concepts and ideas. This is a slow process that needs to be learned and practiced! Do not just rush through the homework but try to understand the main story. Always ask yourself whether you can connect the dots and understand the ``why'' and the ``how''. Close your books and notes and check whether you can write down the main results of the section. Do all this in your study group and challenge each other. Also, explaining material to somebody else is extremely helpful for your own learning process.
• Do the homework. Remember that the homework counts almost 11% of the course grade. You should aim for receiving at least 90% on the homework!!! Seriously! This is possible if you try hard enough and put enough effort into the course. Not putting enough effort into the homework most likely means being insufficiently prepared for the exams and losing many points for the final grade.
• Work hard not to fall behind. It is very difficult to catch up in a math class after falling behind. One of the best ways to avoid doing so is to systematically do the homework. One of the simplest ways to do this is to regularly go to the Mathskeller at some open time in your schedule. Math faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students are there to offer assistance.

The best way to get in touch with me is by email. Do not send emails in text message format! A proper email has the following ingredients:

• concise and meaningful information in the subject line;
• a courteous greeting and closing (may be skipped for a reply email within a couple of hours);
• a body of the text that is written in complete sentences with proper spelling (including capitalization), grammar, and punctuation (you are a COLLEGE student!);