That's All, Folks!

Well, I've submitted the final grades. You should be able to see yours on the SIO website. You can see your final exam grades on the Blackboard site, as well as your final average. If you are interested, here are the statistics for the semester. At the top, you can see the grade cutoffs for the overall grades: A-77.75, B-66.75, C-56.75, D-41.75. At the bottom are statistics for the final exam, including the grade cutoffs: A-80%, B-70%, C-60%, D-45%.

Have a great break!

Final Exam Room Assignments

Here are the room assignments for the final exam:

Sections A, B, C in DH 2315.
Sections D, E, F, H in DH 2210.
Sections G, I in DH 2302.

I'll see you in the morning.

Try to get a good night's sleep. No really. Why are you laughing, I mean it.

Final Exam Reference Table

I will provide you with a reference table to use for the final exam. It will have the same information as the table provided with exam #2. I've provided a link to the table from the final exam review page.

Office Hours for Mark Fields

Unfortunately my normal office hours don't work this week, so I'll be in the Undergrad TA office (Wean 6215) at the following times instead:

Wednesday 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Thursday 3:30 - 5:30 PM

As usual, feel free to email me to set up an appointment outside of these times if they don't work for you. Good luck everyone!

Old homeworks and HW15

Old homeworks for section B & C have been put in a folder outside Dr. Handron's office on the 6th floor of Wean Hall. The latest homework, #15, is also there in a separate folder.

Exam #1 Solutions

I've put some copies of the solutions to Exam #1 in a box outside my office door. Feel free to stop by and pick up a copy.

Asa Palley writes...

Sun, Dec 09, 2007 -- Review Session
For my students in sections F and H - It looks like Professor Handron will
be holding a review session from 1 - 2:30 on Wednesday (check out the
details on the course website blog). So you should all go to that and then
if you have remaining questions, I'll be holding another review session in
Doherty Hall A310 from 2:30 to 4, or beyond if need be. Also, please check
your grades on Blackboard and let me know if anything is missing that
shouldn't be. Note that the homeworks 5, 9, 12 and 13 do not exist so don't
worry if you don't have a grade up. You should only be concerned if an
assignment appears with a "blank" or a "0".

Asa

Also:

"Please pick up any homeworks that you haven't gotten
back outside my office, Wean 7211."

Final Exam Review Session

The Final Exam Review Session has been scheduled. It will be on Wednesday, December 12, from 1:00-2:30 in DH 2315.

Old Exam Problems

I've added some old exam problems to the final exam review page.

Final Exam

I've posted review matrials for the Final Exam. I'll add some old exam problems as soon as I get a chance.

One important point to make: The final exam is a cumulative exam. I've only posted review materials for the subjects covered since Exam #3, but you should make sure to study the material from Exam #1, Exam #2, Exam #3,

Assignment for Week #15

I've posted the last homework assignment. Most of the problems are from Section 8.7 Taylor and Maclaurin Series, but there are a few other odds and ends. A couple problems are from the supplementary reading Using
Series to Solve Differential Equations.

University Course Assessment

No longer must we make due with mere Faculty Course Evaluations. We now have University Course Assessments - newly named, and therefore better!

You can find a link to the UCA's from the Carnegie Mellon portal. It was the second link under "Courses" when I visited. If you have any trouble accessing the site, you can send an email querry to university-course-assessment@andrew.cmu.edu.

Exam #3 Wrapup

I announced the grade cutoffs for Exam #3 in class yesterday. You can find out the whole story here [note: updated to correct an error in the weighting of grades]. If you didn't get a chance to write them down in class. Here are the grade cutoffs for Exam #3:

A cutoff - 65
B cutoff - 55
C cutoff - 45
D cutoff - 30

The current cutoffs for cumulative averages are [note: these have been corrected from an earlier version]

A cutoff - 75.67
B cutoff - 65.67
C cutoff - 55.67
D cutoff - 40.67

You can compare your "weighted average" from the Blackboard site to these cutoffs to see where you stand.

Assignment for Week #14

As promised, I've added a few problems from Section 8.6 for the assignment due Friday. These are in addition to the problems from Sections 8.4 and 8.5 announced last week. You can find the complete assignment on the Week #14 assignment page. You can also follow the link from the Schedule Page.

I've also posted the readings for this week.

Assignment for Week #13

There is no class this week, and so no homework due this Friday. You will have an assignment due on Friday, November 30. I don't have all of it posted yet, but you can view the first part of it. Follow the link from the Schedule page, or go there directly.

Exam review (Additional)

Upon request of the students of my recitation, i have decided to hold a "Review Session" tonight at 8:30 pm, in DH 2210. I will be open to questions.

Exam #3

I've posted the review page for Exam #3, hopefully you've had a chance to look at it. If so, go back again, its been updated. There are now some old exam problems you can take a look at. I've also updated the information about the review session, which has tentatively been scheduled for Thursday evening, from 7:00-9:00.

As soon as I have confirmation of the time and place for the review session, I'll post it.

Some Useful Supplements

I have added an extensive explanation of Induction and a couple of examples of proofs on the blackboard site under 'course documents.' Do check it out.

Cancelling Office Hours

I'll be out of town from tomorrow afternoon through Sunday evening, so my normal office hours are canceled for this week. However, I'll be free tomorrow between 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM; don't hesitate to email me if you'd like to set up a time to meet in there. Have a good week,

-Mark =)

Exam #3 Pre-Announcement

It has been pointed out to me that, although I announced in class that Exam #3 would be moved to Friday 16 November, the schedule page still had it listed as Monday 19 November. I want to assure that the day really has been changed. The exam will be Friday 16 November.

I've updated the Schedule page and Policies page accordingly. Sorry for the confustion.

Mechanical Calculators

I don't know if any of you have found the site oobject.com. Every so often (day? week?) they post a list of objects in some category, which readers can then rank as best/worst or whatever.

Some collections are more interesting than some, but I was fascinated by their collection of 17 mechanical marvel calculators.

My favorites are Babbage's Difference Engine Number 1 and Liebnitz's stepped reckoner. If you have read Neil Stephenson's 3-volume Baroque Cycle, you can see the gold disks that were integral (integral - Hah!) to the plot.

Check out the other lists. There's lots of weird/interesting stuff there.

Assignment for Week #11

The reading and homework assignment for Week #11. Have been posted. The assignment is not quite as long as that for Week #10, but you may still want to get an early start.

Newton's Method on the Web

I'm Monday's lecture I showed you some pictures showing the "basins of attraction" for the three complex solutions to z^3-1=0. The applet used to generate those pictures is here. This is another nice page discussing Newton's method in the complex plane. It has several nice examples on display. It also has a more versatile generation form.

The boundaries between the basins of attract on for z^3-1=0 are fractals. Another interesting fractal that I mentioned yesterday is the Mandelbrot set. Wikipedia has a lot of interesting information about the Mandelbrot set, with some really beautiful pictures, like this one.

Exam #2 Results

The results are in for Exam #2. Here are the gory details. The grade cutoffs are the standard array

A cutoff - 85
B cutoff - 75
C cutoff - 65
D cutoff - 50

The page of statistics also has the updated grade cutoffs for cumulative averages:

A cutoff - 79
B cutoff - 69
C cutoff - 59
D cutoff - 44

You can compare your weighted average from blackboard to these cutoffs and determine where you stand in the course.

Assignment for Week #10

The assignment for this week is posted now. It's a little longer than usual, but not too bad.

Final Exam

I just want to point out that our final exam is schedued for Friday 14 December, from 8:30-11:30am, not 1:00-4:00pm, as has posted on the schedule page.

Exam #2 Review Session

I've scheduled the review session for Exam #2. It will be 7:30-9:00PM on Monday 22 October. The session will be in DH 2210.

Exam #2

I've posted the review page for Exam #2.

As you probably know, Exam #2, like Exam #1, will be given at 7:30AM in multiple rooms. Students enrolled in 33-111 will note that the scheduled time overlaps with your Physics exam. If you are enrolled in 33-111, you can take the 21-122 exam after your Physics exam, at 9:30 in our regular classroom, PH 100.

Unfortunately, I cannot extend this offer to students who are not taking 33-111. If PH 100 had enough room to accommodate you all, I would give the exam during class time to begin with.

To students inclined to think the 33-111 students are getting an advantage I would point out that (1) these students get only an extra half hour of sleep, and (2) they must prepare for two back to back exams.

In any case, I'll update the review page as needed - with the time and place for the review session, in particular.

Assignment for Week #8

The reading and homework assignments for week #8 are now available. Follow the link from the schedule page.

Note that, since Friday is the mid-semester break, the homework will be due on Thursday, either in recitation or in your TA's mailbox.

Assignment for Week #7

The reading and homework assignmet for Week #7 has been posted. Follow the link from the schedule page.

Dfield

The dfield applet I used in class today can be found here. Go ahead and give it a try!

Comments on Grading and Grade Cutoffs

I've had a number of people asking me about what the grade cutoffs announced in class mean. Let me take a moment to tell you how I will be calculating your grades. At the end of the semester I will compute a weighted average of your grades, using the weights announced at the start of the semester (15% homework, 60% mid-terms, 25% final).

To determine the final grade cutoffs for these final averages, I will average the grade cutoffs in the same way. For instance, to get the A-cutoff for your final averages, I will compute a weighted average of the A-cutoffs for each assignment. Thus a student who gets precisely the A-cutoff on each assignment will receive an A for the course, but anyone with an average below that will get a B or lower.

For midterm grades, I'll take 60 times your first exam score and 15 times your homework average, add them together, and divide by 75.

If you want to know where you stand right now, you can look at your weighted average (I just added this feature) in Blackboard. You should then compare it to the "Grade Cutoffs" in the "Cumulative Average" section of this (updated) statistics page. That will tell you your current letter grade.

Exam #1 Results

I distributed the graded exams in class this morning. I'll pass them along to your TA's, so if you didn't get yours this morning, you can pick it up in recitation tomorrow.

The statistics (with grade cutoffs) that I displayed in class this morning are right here. I hope it won't spoil the suspense if I tell you the cutoffs: A-70, B-60, C-50, D-35. Not all the homework grades have been added to the Blackboard system, so some of the averages in the homework section are a bit out of kilter.

The exam grades are now available on the Blackboard site as well.

Assignment for Week #6

The reading and problems for Week #6 have been posted. You can follow the link from the Schedule page.

21-122 Final Exam

Well the Fall 2007 Final Exam Schedule has been released. The 21-122 final exam is scheduled for Friday, December 14, from 8:30-11:30 AM. If you are making travel arrangements, please make sure you are available at that time.

Thursday Recitation Cancelled

Whereas, we just had an exam today, and

Whereas, there is no homework due this Friday, and

Whereas, your TA's are busily grading the 300+ midterm exams,

It is Hereby Resolved that there shall be no recitation this Thursday.

Exam #1 - The other review session

If you missed tonight's review session, you have one other chance. One of your TA's, Pulak Goswami, posted the following announcement on the Blackboard site:

Hello, I am one of the TAs for this course and in preparation for the exam on Wednesday I will be holding a review session in SH 125 (this is the lecture room in Scaife Hall: the potato chip looking thing next to the building).
The review session will be on Tuesday the 25th from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Bring Questions.

Enjoy...

Exam #1 Review Session

I have finally managed to get the review session scheduled. It will be tonight in DH 2210 from 7:30-9:00pm. I won't have much prepared in terms of review. I'll plan to spend most or all of the time answering questions.

Exam #1

It's that time of the semester. Exam #1 will take place next Wednesday, September 26. There is a review page posted on the Schedule page of the website.

Please note that the exam will be held at the unconscionably early hour of 7:30-8:20AM. Both Lecture sections will take the exam at the same time, but we will be split among three classrooms. To make sure that everyone spreads out evenly, I've assigned the classrooms by Recitation section. You can check the Review Page to see where you belong.

Assignments for Week #4

I guess I forgot to post a notice about this week's assignments, which have been on the Schedule page of the website. I assume you have found the link, or I'd have heard about it by now.

Addendum for HW#3

I've added a couple notes to the homework assignment for Week #3. When you are using tables in section 6.4, make sure you indicate which entry from the table you have used. When you work the problems from the Chapter review, don't use the tables. Practice with the other techniques.

That is the end of this "to serve you better" moment.

Anonymous Comments Enabled

As a followup to Pall's comment about comments, I've enabled anonymous comments. You need not fear revealing your identity when asking potentially embarrassing questions! This is not really a change in policy. I just happens that someone (Pall) let me know that only registered users were able to post comments. That left out - well just about everyone!

It's open season on comments. Have at it folks!

Of course, there is also the Blackboard forum for asking and answering questions.

Assignment for Week #3

I've posted the reading and homework assignments for Week #3. I've decided to include the section about integration using tables, since a few of you have been asking about that. It is scheduled for Monday's lecture now.

Homework #1 Issues

I've heard from our TA's that a number of students turned in the wrong assignment for HW#1. There seem to have been two causes of this. (1) The homework link pointed to the wrong spot for a few hours on the first day of class, and (2) confusion about which text to use. (This is our text.)

I'm going to wait until next Tuesday to put up the solutions to HW#1. If you did the wrong assignment, you can resubmit your assignment before then.

Assignment for Week #2

I've posted the reading and homework assignments for Week #2. You can follow the link from the Schedule Page.

The assignment covers trigonomoetric integrals and the method of trigonometric substitution, both covered in Section 6.2. Class doesn't meet on Monday, so we'll cover trigonometric substitution on Wednesday.

Problems for HW#1

Since a number of you have had difficulty getting the textbook this week, I've made up a pdf version of the first homework assignment. You can follow the link from the schedule page in order to find it.

Reading assignment for Friday

On Friday, we'll only be discussing the first part of Section 6.2 (pages 310-314). I've updated the assignment page accordingly.

Recitation Rooms Have Changed!

Apparently, anyway. I've talked to more than a few students who have not been able to find their recitations. It seems like some of the locations have changed from whenever your schedules were printed out. You can find the correct (I think!) locations on the Course Information page.

You can find the most up to date information (for all your courses) by following the link to "Schedule of Classes" from the HUB web page.

Blackboard Discussion Group

As I mentioned in today's handout, there is a Blackboard site for 21-122. This site basically serves two purposes.

First it allows you to see your grades for all of your assignments. This may not seem so great right now, but later in the semester, when you have grades to look at -- WOW!

Also, I've created a discussion group for you. You can access it by logging into the Blackboard site and clicking "Discussion Board" in the left hand column. (You can also access it from the control panel.) You can use this discussion board to ask questions about the homework, or discuss other issues about the material. It's not meant to be a replacement for office hours and the like, but it may be of some use.

Homework Deadlines and Submission

I wanted to take a moment to clarify (or at least reiterate) the policies regarding homework. Homework will be due each week on Friday. (Well, most weeks, anyway.) During class on Friday I'll have an envelope for each recitation section. You can put your homework into the envelope for your section.

You also have the option of turning your homework in later during the day. If you choose to do so, you will need to put your assignment into your TA's department mailbox. These mailboxes are located in WEH 6113.

If you choose to submit your homework after class, the deadline is 3:20pm. Homework submitted after that time will be considered late. Late homework is subject to penalties as outlined on the Policies Page of the web site.

Assignment for Week #1

The reading and homework assignments for Week #1 have been posted. You can also follow the link from the schedule page.

The homework exercises cover the substitution method and integration by parts, which we'll talk a little more about on Wednesday.

Welcome to 21-122

Welcome to the 21-122 blog. I'll have more to say soon!