Fall 2014 Common Guidelines & General Information

Course Webpage:   www.gang.umass.edu/~kusner/class/235common.html
This page contains common guidelines and general information for Math 235. Individual instructors should have webpages for their own sections:

Jeff Hatley
Rob Kusner
Eyal Markman
Peter Norman
Tassos Vogiannou

Text:  

• Otto Bretscher, Linear Algebra with applications, 5th Edition, Pearson Education 2012, or
• Otto Bretscher, Linear Algebra with applications, 4th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall 2009.

Calculators & Notes

Technology more complex than a pencil - calculators, smartphones, and so forth - are not allowed for the exams; you may use calculators to check your homework solutions.
On all common exams, a single page of your handwritten notes is permitted.

Common Exam Times & Locations

There will be two common exams - a midterm and a final - proctored and graded by all instructors.

Common Midterm Exam:   Tuesday 4 November from 7 to 9 PM.
Marcus 131: Norman (235.2) and Kusner (235.3&4)
Hasbrouck 20: Markman (235.1), Vogiannou (235.5) and Hatley (235.6) [Hasbrouck 104A available for overflow]
Make-ups will be hadled by the various section instructors according to UMass policy.

Common Final Exam:   Wednesday 10 December from 10:30AM to 12:30 PM in the Totman Gym.

Make-ups will not be given to accomodate travel plans!

Grading

Common Exams (50%):  

Each common exam counts toward 25% of the course grade, for a total of 50%

Instructor's Grades (50%):  

Each instructor will determine the other 50% of the student's grade based on the student's performance in the class:

25% based on the section's first mini-midterm exam and quizzes

25% based on class participation, WeBWorK and other homework

The score on each of the these parts (Common Midterm, Final Exam, and the pair of Instructor's Grades) may be scaled to the 0-25 interval. The sum of these four scores will determine the course letter grade according to the following guidelines:

Course letter-grade guidelines

Suggested Topics Schedule

09/01: 1.1
09/08: 1.2, 1.3
09/15: 2.1, 2.2
09/22: 2.3, 2.4
09/29: 3.1, 3.2
10/06: 3.3,
10/13: 3.4
10/20: 4.1, 4.2
10/27: 4.3, 6.1
11/03: 6.2, 6.3
11/10: 7.1, 7.2
11/17: 7.3, 7.4
11/24: 7.5
12/01: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5

Along with the WeBWorK problem sets, there are also suggested homework problems at:

www.gang.umass.edu/~kusner/class/235hw [from 4th (and even 3rd) edition of Bretscher]

www.math.umass.edu/~markman/math235_spring14_html/suggested-hw.html [from 4th]

www.math.umass.edu/~markman/math235_spring14_html/suggested-hw.html [from 5th]