Math 53
FAQ
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- We recommend that you read the Introduction to the textbook: pages ii through vii, in particular the section "How you should read this book" starting on page iv.
- The material in the blue boxes is important: you are responsible for that material even though we may not cover all of it in class. You also should not be completely ignoring the non-boxed portions, which give useful explanations of what is summarized in the blue boxes.
- There are lots of real-world examples in green boxes. Do not feel you need to read all of them, but you should definitely read some. You can choose which ones to read according to your interests. You may wish to read more in future years when you encounter relevant applications in other courses or your work.
- The material in gray boxes, plus some whole sub-sections with the heading "(Optional)", go a bit deeper into various topics. Read them if you are interested (and have time), but you should feel to skip any or all of those portions of the text.
- You are expected to read the assigned pre-class reading before class, but are not expected to fully understand it at that point (this is a first exposure, with class providing further discussion).
- After each lecture, you should go over the blue boxes in the corresponding chapter and the chapter highlights page (at the end of each chapter, right before the Exercises). Use the chapter highlights page as a study guide (e.g. before doing the homework and when preparing for exams).
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- Use the chapter highlights page to keep track of where to read about key definitions, notations, concepts and results, and computational skills. The terminology and notation are used throughout applications of math in many fields, and with experience during the course you will digest it.
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- Some portion of these exercises will be assigned for weekly homework. The particular problems that will be
assigned for homework will have full solutions made available after the deadline, but the others will not
have published solutions (you can always talk about them with a course staff member in office hours -- we are happy
to give you feedback on whether you are on the right track).
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- You can carefully go through all of the "examples" in that chapter -- they are all fully worked out, and you can treat these like the "problems with answers in the back of the book" that are in many textbooks.
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- We will post two practice exams and their solutions on Canvas before each exam. Make sure that you practice on the version without solutions before looking at the version with solutions.
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