Announcements
The exams will be held in class on October 4th and November 8th.
My office hours for September 11th have changed. I will be holding
office hours from 8:30 to 9:30 tomorrow.
The UT Learning Center is offering free review for calculus
classes. If you feel at all underprepared for 408M, attending these
classes is a great way to be brought to speed. Students may sign
up by visiting the Learning Center in Jester A332A (Mon-Fri, 9-5)
or online at http://utlc.utexas.edu/. Be sure to sign up early as space is limited.
The ideas of this course build on ideas in the prerequisits for this course.
So, putting time into having a solid foundation wil be very benefitial for you.
Course descriptions can be found online at
http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/class/class.html.
Also, quite a number of students qualify for 25 free hours of one on
one tutoring from the UTLC. If you benefiting from financial aid or
are in a special recruitment program (like TIPS or Longhorn scholars)
you more than likely qualify for the 25 free hours. In addition all
students qualify for one free hour of one on one tutoring and
unlimited drop-in tutoring. So be sure to take advantage of these
wonderful resources if you feel you need any additional help.
A word about the class
This class may be presented a little differently from other math classes
you have taken. The goal of the class is for you to be able to independently
solve problems using a variety of techniques. Being able to explain your
solutions and mathmetical ideas clearly will be a major focus of TA sessions.
In order to facilitate this goal, you will be asked to solve problems in
the TA session and explain your work to the class. I expect this to be
challenging at first and then gradually get easier as the course progresses.
On top of that, I hope and expect that most of the mistakes you make will
be in the TA sessions.
My brother always likes to say that most of life is showing up. Well, most
of math is starting somewhere. It is prehaps the most challenging part of
the course. In office hours, "I have no idea where to start," will be a
valid excuse for the first week. After that, you should be come into office
hours with a list of things that you have tried and if possible the reasons
why these methods did not work out. As the course progresses, you will grow
accustomed to learning how solve problems more effectively and your intutition
will become more refined.
