COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES- MATH 251, FALL 2005 (A. Freire)

1- Attendance: attendance to every class meeting is expected. I will take attendance at almost every
class, and keep a record- if a student's attendance is spotty, later complaints about low grades will be
met with skepticism. If you must miss a class, you are responsible for finding out what was covered.
If you have time, it is usually a good idea to read the section in advance. It is also usually a good idea to
take notes during class.

In lecture I'll emphasize the main concepts and results in a section and work a few illustrative examples.
Many of the details will be left for you to read independently (including entire sections- see the syllabus.)

Students receiving financial aid (e.g. lottery scholarships): be advised that I am required to report to the
University administration the names of supported students who have not been attending regularly.

2- Course log- this page will be updated after every class- it will include the topics covered that day,
the topics to be introduced next time, homework assignments and other relevant information. Please make
a habit of checking it often- this course WILL NOT have a Blackboard presence, except for
a link to my home page.

3-Classroom behavior- in addition to Hilltopics (p.11/12), there is an official departmental policy for mathematics
 classes, which I will expect you to become familiar with:
Classroom behavior expectations (PDF file)
Violations will be dealt with in the manner described therein. Note that the list includes systematic tardiness,
leaving early without notifying me in advance, reading newpapers in class and disruptive noise
 (e.g. cellphones, which should be OFF during class).

Please review also the sections of Hilltopics dealing with `academic dishonesty' (cheating)-p.19/20 of
the 2005-06 edition. The penalty for cheating on an exam of quiz will be a grade of 0 on that exam or
quiz for a 1st offense,  grade F in the course and referral to an Academic Review Board for a second offense.

QUESTIONS?  I encourage you to ask questions in class if an explanation is not clear; it it usually the
best students who ask questions, and no question will be considered `below par'. However,
questions in class should refer to the topic being discussed (otherwise, ask after class).  The question
"which section in the book are you discussing" is not considered appropriate. If a topic is not covered in the
 text I'll warn the class; otherwise it should be obvious where to find it in the text.

4-Homework- following each class, the homework problems corresponding to the material covered
will be posted on the `course log' page. Homework assigned by Wednesday of each week is considered
`due'  on Friday of the same week (expected average:12 to 15 problems/wk). Homework will NOT be
graded; instead, the homework grade will be based on short QUIZZES, given every Friday beginning on
9/2. The quizzes will consist of homework problems. If you write up homework
solutions at home, do turn them in when the corresponding quiz takes place (but no later.)
Students who regularly turn in (neatly written) homework will be viewed favorably when deciding grades in
borderline cases. (Conversely, if you never turn anything in, I will take this as evidence you are not doing homework.)

Ordinarily I won't have time to discuss all but very few homework problems in class. Questions about
homework problems should be asked during office hours (or by e-mail or phone).

5-Exams- There will be four exams (including the final); together with the quiz grade, this gives a total of
five grades. The lowest of these five will be disregarded. The course grade will be the arithmetic average
of the three highest grades and  (highest+lowest)/2 (of the remaining 4).

Please note: in the exams I'll be interested in how much a student has learned, at a conceptual level. The only
way to measure whether one has really understood the material is by proposing new questions. Typically on
the exams I will include a few questions (say, 2 or 3 of a total of 8) which are not `like' any problem seen before
in class, in the text, or in the homework. It will probably be hard to pass this course (at least with a B or better)
if all you can do is `memorize typical problems' and imitate the solutions on the exams- you will need to understand
the material at a (slightly?) higher level.

Exam dates will be announced 10 days (or more) in advance. Students who will miss an exam due to participation
in a University activity should warn me in advance and provide documentation. Students who miss due to illness
should  provide a signed doctor's statement. In both cases, the course average will be computed over 4 grades, as
above. Students missing exams without prior (properly justified) warning will get a 0 on them.
There will be no makeups of exams or quizzes.

6. Grading
Expected grading scale: 80% or higher: A; 65% to 79%: B or B+; 55% to 64%: C or C+; below 50%: F
(Do not be fooled by this grading scale.)
IMPORTANT REMARK:
I do not `grade on a curve': your grade on each quiz or exam (and in the course) will depend only on your
own performance, without taking into account how the rest of the class does.  In addition, the fact that
a student must maintain a certain average to avoid losing a scholarship will play no role when I'm assigning final course grades.
Finally, there will be no 'extra credit' assignments to improve the grades of individual students.


7.  If you must quit the class: drop without W by 9/2, with a W by 10/4, with a WP-WF by 11/15. For the
latter, you must bring a form for me to sign.

8. Course content- As long as the level and general goals of the course are respected, the details of which material
is introduced in the course are my responsibility.  That is to say,  I do not keep track of what instructors of other
sections of this course are doing.  The choice of topics may vary substantially from one section to another, but this
should not matter to you. You are responsible for  learning  the material  introduced in this section; on rare occasions
this may include material not found (or not emphasized) in the text- I'll pont that out when it happens.

9. Calculators. Most calculators can deal with many linear algebra operations studied in this course. Feel free to use
any calculator you like (except when instructed otherwise for a particular exam problem.) I am somewhat familiar with
these procedures for the TI-85 and the TI-83+ ; the sooner you familiarize yourself with them, the better (in general,
I will not spend time with `this is not working on my calculator' questions in class- please see me after class.)  For
the TI-85, here is a list I prepared a while ago:
GUIDE TO BASIC LINEAR ALGEBRA FUNCTIONS- TI85
I will have to deal later with the fact that the TI85 computes eigenvalues/eigenvectors, but the TI83+ apparently does not.

10. Learning.  You should gradually get used to being  SELF-TAUGHT.   No one can make you learn a subject you
don't care about. For the other subjects, the instructor's main role is to point out what is important (in the forest of less essential
material included in most texts), and the interconnections and applications, but it is up to you to learn it
any way you can.  At times my `explanations'  (and/or pace) may assume a fluency with `lower level' material that is not present.
If this happens, raise your hand and ask a relevant question. If you still can't understand the
answer, ask during office hours- or study with a classmate, friend, tutor, etc- anything that works for you. In the end your
grade will reflect how much you've learned, and the `reasons' for a low (or failing)  grade won't matter.

A common reason for a good student to get low grades in a class like this is that he/she is taking too many hours: 15h/sem is
plenty for a student who is not working. Those working outside of school (or taking care of a child or other non-academic
reponsibility)  should not go beyond 12h. Taking a heavier course load with good grades would only be possible if the courses were
trivial, which very few courses are. (In particular, this one is not)  For this course, if you are not spending at least 2h
reading the text and working on problems for each hour of lecture, you are probably not spending enough time to get a good
grade (A or B.) (This is a necessary, but often not a sufficient condition- some students will need more time.)
If your course load is heavy, it is probably a good idea to drop a class early on (if it is this one, please let me know.)