Math 221, Fall 2009, K. Whittlesey

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Some Math 221 office hours. You may go to any of these.
Mon 11:30-12:30: M.Tip, in 110 Altgeld
Mon 2:30-3:30: Greg, in Coble basement near computers
Mon 4-5: Artan, in 326 Altgeld
Tue 11-11:50: Aaron, in Coble basement near computers or near blackboards in back
Tue 1-1:50: Aaron, in Coble basement near computers or near blackboards in back
Tue 4-5pm: Michael, in Coble basement in the back right hand corner.
Wed 2-3pm: Anna, in Coble basement near the computers
Wed 2:30-3:30: Greg, in Coble basement near computers
Thu 11-11:50: Maryam, starting outside of room 145 Altgeld, but then Coble basement
Thu 4-5pm: Michael and Ying, in Coble basement in the back right hand corner.
Fri 9:30-10:30am: Liliana, in Coble basement

Nov 17 only: Tue 2:30-4:30: Dr. Kim in 247 Illini Hall. (To get to Illini Hall, exit Altgeld through the US Post Office and then cross Wright Street.)

Announcements:

Grade Cutoffs for Midterm 2
The median was a 31.
A: 37-47
B: 27-36
C: 17-26
D: 10-17 If your score is in this range, or if you made 3 or less points on the first page of derivatives, you are in danger of failing this course.

If you didn't do as well as you wanted on the exam, it feels even worse when the overall average was high. The Counseling Center is an excellent (and free-to-students) resource for dealing with issues like test anxiety, time management and stress. It's not a sign of weakness to try to address problems like this, it's a sign of strength. Also, if you would like to re-do any problems on the exam, for knowledge not for points, please do so on a fresh sheet of paper and give it either to the TAs or to me. We'll let you know if you got it right.

To compute your current approximate grade: Compute (exam1/41 + exam2/47)/2 and compare the percentage with this chart:
A > 80 > B > 57 > C > 35 > D > 23.
Drop your grade one notch if your quiz or homework score is low.

Grade Cutoffs for Midterm 1
A: 33-41
B: 23-33
C: 14-22
under 13: you should think about switching to Math 115, if you can.
under 10: you should definitely switch to Math 115. Go to Altgeld 313 for the paperwork, and be sure to take the Math 115 midterm next week.

These are rough estimates and I do not give out precise +/- cutoffs, but you can figure it out. For instance, a 31 is B+, whereas a 24 is a B-. The median score was a 27.
These cutoffs were used to compute freshman midterm grades. If your homework score or section score was very low, I lowered the grade.

Fun webpages from Math 220 fall 2008

Sept 28. WebAssign has announced that the "practice buttons" are off for the next week at least so they can "fix" the bug that allows students to flip through the practice until finding their exact problem. (People do this!? Why??) I am moving this week's assignment to Sunday. Beware: it is very slow Sunday afternoons. Sept 22 WebAssign is "still slow." Please write them directly if you have more unusual problems.
Sept17th: The new WebAssign servers are in, so things should speed up. Friday's homework is still moved to Sunday at 3pm this week.
Sept 10th: WebAssign is having serious difficulties. As soon as I can get on myself, I'm going to give an extension for Friday's homework to Sunday. I believe it is better behaved during the day than in the evening.

If you have problems with the online homework (eg, missing buttons, problems submitting), first try a different browser. They recommend Firefox (free download here.)

If switching browsers doesnt fix your problem, please contact the WebAssign help folks, cc'ing me on any emails. I usually cannot fix the problem, but they usually can.
I can give you credit for work missed if you can document that you wrote them. Their contact info:
Phone: 1-800-955-8275 from 8am-8pm M-F and 2pm-1-pm Sun (Eastern Time)
Email: support@webassign.net from 8am-11pm M-F, 12-4pm Sat, 12-10pm Sun (Eastern Time).

This system is picky about upper and lower case -- be careful to enter a capital C instead of lower case c if the problem uses a capital C instead of a lower case c.

How to start using WebAssign
Note: the code that comes with your textbook is NOT the webassign code; it is for a hints/solutions accesory to the textbook. The WebAssign codes have now been automatically assigned, so you do not need to worry about them.