Math 120 B, Spring 2018

Contents

• Quick start guide
• Announcements
• General information about the course
• What you need
• Homework
• Exam Information
• Grading Policies
• Study Resources
• Calendar

Quick start guide

Instructor: Nikolas Eptaminitakis

email: neptamin@uw.edu

Lecture time and location: MWTh 6:30-7:50 in CMU 228

Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:00-3:00 pm and Fridays 12:00-1:00 pm in PDL C-20

This class provides the background necessary to succeed in Calculus and Life. It has weekly quizzes, 2 midterms and a final. It also has homework twice a week. Also see the section “What you need” below.

Announcements

• Final Exam grades posted on Catalyst, solutions here.

• Quiz 6 solutions.

• Quiz 5 solutions.

• Midterm 2 grades are posted. Solutions here.

• Quiz 4 solutions.

• Quiz 3 solutions.

• Midterm 1 grades are posted. Solutions here.

• Quiz 2 solutions.

• Quiz 1 solutions.

• Welcome to Math 120!

General information about the course

The aim of this course is to help you build the strong math background necessary to succeed in calculus, by training you in solving lengthy multi-part word problems. Even if you have taken precalculus before at high school level, you will probably find this class challenging. It covers a large amount of material and is fast paced; that means, you should try your best to not fall behind. This course assumes some prior exposure to the material covered in the first 12 chapters of the textbook (functions as a concept, graphs of functions, linear, quadratic, exponential and logarithmic functions), but those will still covered in detail. However, it doesn’t assume ability to solve lengthy and difficult problems. This ability will be developed in this course.

Unlike the morning sections, the evening section meets 3 times a week, 80’ each time, and there are no quiz sections. I will be lecturing for the first 50 minutes approximately, and for the remaining time I will be having you work on a couple of problems on the material discussed. This is a very important part of the class, since you will have access to instant feedback from me and your classmates. To get the most out of the lectures, you are expected to read the corresponding chapter of the book beforehand and bring questions. See the calendar below for the material covered in each day.

You should also read this.

What you need

• A TI-30x IIS Scientific Calculator. You can find it in the University Bookstore. It is inexpensive and comes in fancy colors.

• Access to Webassign. That’s where the homework is going to be collected and graded. Note that there is no class key; if you are enrolled for this class, you should be able to see it in WebAssign once you enter your UW credentials.

• An electronic or physical copy of the textbook. The textbook is Precalculus, 2016 Edition by D.H. Collingwood, K.D. Prince and M. M. Conroy. A free pdf version can be found here, or accessed through WebAssign. You can buy a physical copy of the textbook in Professional Copy & Print or EZ Copy N Print, on the ave.

• About 15 hours per week. This might vary a lot depending on each person’s skills and background, but it is the general guideline for a 5 credit course, assuming that you have a solid grasp of the prerequisites.

• A desk, notebook and pencil. Math can’t be studied while lying in bed. You need to be actively engaged, take notes and check the calculations in the textbook.

Homework

There will be homework due twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, collected and graded through Webassign. It is very important that you write down full solutions for the homework problems. Being able to do so is a skill you will need for the exams, and homework is a great opportunity to practice it. No individual extensions will be given for homework problems, but at the end I will add 10% to your homework average score, up to 100% (that is, 87% will count as 97% and 92% will count as 100%).

Exam Information

• We will have quizzes 10-20’ long on Wednesdays, except the first and last one. Quizzes are closed-notes, but you are allowed to use the TI-30x IIS Scientific Calculator (see “What you need”). There will be no makeup quizzes, but I will drop your lowest score.

• There will be 2 Midterms and a Final. They all take place in our regular classroom. The dates are as in the table below.

• A single handwritten 8.5×11 in or smaller sheet of notes is allowed during exams. You may write on both sides. No part of a notesheet may be printed or photocopied.

• A long list of past quizzes, Midterms and exams can be found in the Materials page, here.

• There will be no makeup exams. If you have a documented, verifiable and legitimate reason to miss an exam inform the instructor as soon as possible.

Grading Policies

This class is curved. This means that your grade will depend on your performance relative to the performance of the class. Note that a grade of 2.5 and above is required to proceed to Calculus (Math 124).

Study Resources

Here’s a few resources that can help you succeed in Math 120:

• The textbook

• The instructor, in class and office hours

• Your classmates and other students taking Math 120

• Some excellent handouts can be found in Dr. Conroy’s Math 120 webpage, here

• The tutors at the Math Study Center.

• The tutors at CLUE.

As mentioned before, you can find past exams here.

Calendar

Use this calendar to find out which sections of the book you are expected to have read before coming to class. I will be updating it at the end of every week, so it contains an estimate of the material to be covered on the upcoming week.