MATH 220 BL1, Fall 2006. Calculus I.

Professor: Igor Mineyev, 243 Illini Hall, mineyev[at]math.uiuc.edu
Office hours: 9.00-9.50am on Monday and Wednesday in Illini Hall, room 243.

For all matters, first contact the TA of your section:

There will be no office hours after December 9, unless you arranged it with your TA.

Sections BD1 and BD2: Martha Makowski (mmakows2[at]uiuc.edu).
office hours Monday 9:00-9:50am, Wednesday 3:00-3:50am, Coble Hall B1.

Sections BD3 and BD6: Patricia LeVon (plevon[at]uiuc.edu)
office hours Monday 2:00-2:50pm, Tuesday 11:00-11:50am, Coble Hall B1.

Sections BD4 and BD5: Mohit Kumbhat (kumbhat2[at]uiuc.edu)
office hours Monday 3:00-3:50pm, Thurday 4:00-4:50pm, Coble Hall B1.

Section BD7: Jason McCullough (jmccullo[at]math.uiuc.edu)
office hours Friday 3:00-3:50, Illini Hall 346.

The time of TAs' office hours will appear here later. Any student in MATH 220 BL1 can attend the office hours of any of the above TA's, but they must attend their assigned discussion section.

This page will serve the purpose of an in-class syllabus. Read it carefully to get answers to commonly asked questions. More information will be posted here as we proceed with the course.

Textbook. Edwards and Penney, Calculus: Early Transcendentals Version, 6e edition, Prentice-Hall 2003.
Lecture time. MWF 10:00a.m.-10:50a.m.
Class location. 314 Altgeld Hall

Approximate schedule.
Chapter 1: Functions (3 lectures)
Chapter 2: Prelude to Calculus (4 lectures)
Chapter 3: The Derivative (9 lectures)
Chapter 4: Applications of the Derivative (7 lectures)
Chapter 5: The Integral (8 lectures)
Chapter 6: Applications of the Integral (omit 6.4) (6 lectures)

Students are encouraged to use calculators to gain intuition, but no calculators will be ever allowed at exams/quizzes. In this course we will rather emphasize understanding the concepts and understanding how to solve problems.

Participation. It is absolutely crucial that you ask questions during the discussion sections. This is what they are for, and if you don't use it, you lose it. It is therefore important to attend them. It is also important to attend the lectures. Poor attendance can affect your final grade if your overall score is borderline at the end of the semester. Generally, students are expected to attend 100% of the regular lectures and discussion sections. If you have an emergency or strong personal reasons, 90-95% of time would do. No formal letter from you is required in this case, but you might want to inform your TA that you have a reason. In any case it is the student's responsibility to know the material covered in all the lectures and discussion sections, especially the missed ones. If you attend less than 90% of time, consider whether this course suits you. Dropping the course might be an option.

Assigned homework. This is the homework not to turn in. You need to be able to provide complete solutions for these problems. Tests and quizzes can contain problems from the assigned homework. Pay special attention to the assigned homework. It is the student's own responsibility to work on it, and to ask questions if needed. If any difficulty arises, ask your TA during a discussion section to help you.

Written homework. This is the homework to turn in at the beginning of the discussion section when it is due. A detailed correct solution with complete explanations is required. It must be well-organized, and presented step by step. Just a correct answer does not score points. Writing nonsense or incorrect statements reduces your grade. The rule of thumb: writing correct things is good, writing incorrect things is not. On the top of the first page write your name, MATH 220 BL1, discussion section number, homework number.

Written homework will also go under the name "project", or "pr". Late written homework counts as 0. One lowest written assignement will be dropped to allow for emergency situations.

On-line homework. The web page to submit the on-line homework is http://phga.pearsoncmg.com/phga/classes/06f220bl1/. 06f220bl1 is the class number (class ID). To register, you need an access code that should come with each new textbook. But it looks like some new books do not have it. If you do not have one, there are two options: exchange the book with your friend who does not use the code, or buy an access code separately. The acess code can be bought in bookstores in Urbana-Champaign or directly from the publisher. Also, in the bokstore you might be able to obtain a textbook (with the code) returned recently by other students. Make sure that the code you obtain is for the right textbook; you will not be able to register otherwise.

If you have problems registering or logging in, check whether the code you have is from the right textbook (listed above on this page). Here are registration instructions. Try to turn cap lock on an off when you enter the login name and the password. If you are still experiencing a problem, go to http://www.prenhall.com/phga/html/math/ and in the right-most "Student" column click on "Technical Support". Fill in your request and wait for a reply from the publisher's technical support. Also, there is a phone number on the bottom of registration instructions where you can ask for technical support. If there are technical problems with the web page, for example if you cannot see a part of the assignment, try using another browser or another computer system, or both.

Read the working homework hints. Do the assignments well in advance, not just before the deadline time. Problems similar to the ones in the online homework can apear on test and quizzes, and you will be required to provide complete solutions. So pay attention to the comments that the online system gives you, not only to the answers.

The on-line homework system is a great tool for enhancing your skills. You will have an unlimited number of tries, before the deadline. Press "Grade" to see the confirmation that your assignment is complete, and the grade. Make sure to press "Quit&Save" for your grade to appear in the roster. You can do this many times. In each assignment, the last homework you saved will be counted. Make sure the last one is your best one. You can also print the assignment first if you choose, solve it, and then submit the answers on-line.

Please beware that, as anything in our life, the system cannot be absolutely perfect. In some rare cases the computer does not recognise an answer, sometimes even a correct answer. If this happens, DON'T PANIC! Check your answers, try to rewrite the answer differently, read the above working homework hints carefully to avoid common mistakes. If nothing works, accept the inevitable. Three lowest homework grades will be dropped at the end of the semester to accommodate for any kind of emergency. This does not happen often though, and most of the time you should find the online homework helpful and enjoyable.

Exams. There will be four midterm exams and one final exam; they will be given in the regular lecture room. Students are strongly discouraged to miss any of the exams without extraordinary reasons. The dates of the exams:

Rules for the exams. Come to the exam about 5-10 minutes before the usual time. Wait outside the room, do not enter until invited. When invited to enter, enter, take a copy of the exam, and take the seat whose number is indicated on your exam copy. Do not open the exam until asked to do so. When finished, first take all your belongings, then place your exam copy in one of the piles corresponding to the discussion section that you attend and leave quietly. The use of calculators and cell phones is prohibited during the exams. It is best not to bring them at all to the exam. If they are brought, they must be turned off and placed in a locked bag on the floor. Having a cell phone in your hand or pocket will result in automatic 0 score for the exam. On the desk you can have only the exam, a pen/pencil and an eraser. All other belongings should be in a locked bag on the floor. During the test look at your assignment and nowhere else. No caps or earphones are allowed. Have your student ID with you for the exam.

Quizzes will be given at the beginning of some discussion sections. Quizzes, as exams, are based on the assigned homework, online homework, written homework and the material presented at the lectures and discussion sections. Missed quizzes count as 0. Two lowest quizzes will be dropped to allow for emergency situations. There will be no make-up quizzes.

Missed exams, quizzes etc. Missed exams/quizzes and late homework count as 0. One lowest exam, two lowest quizzes, one lowest written homework and three online homework assignments will be dropped to allow for emergency situations. Never miss exams/quizzes/homework without a strong reason.

If you miss one exam, it will not be counted. If you miss two exams, you will need to provide extraordinary reasons for both missed exams. Contact the Emergency Dean at 333-0050 in this case. You will need to provide a letter from the Emergency Dean explaining missing both exams. After the letter and extraordinary reasons are provided, an oral make-up exam will be given to the student at the end of the semester. The same applies to three and more missed exams. A similar rule applies to missed quizzes and late homework assignments.

Do not miss the final exam. The time of the final exam will not be changed. Students must take the exams and quizzes at their assigned time in their assigned classroom.

What to study. The dates of quizzes and exams are listed above. Exams are based on all the material that was covered from the beginning of the course until the time of the exam/quiz (not just from the time of the previous exam/quiz). Quizzes will be on Tuesday and will be based on the material from the beginning of the semester until the week before the week of that particular Tuesday. All this includes the material presented at the lectures, discussion sections, in written homework, assigned homework, online homework. Your study guide for the exams and quizzes consists of your lecture notes, your discussion section notes, your earlier quizzes and exams, and the problem numbers listed on this website. Lectures and discussion sections follow chapters and sections in the textbook (though they do not necessarily cover everything in the textbook), so read the book as well. Example: if an exam is on Octomber 38, then the exam will be based on all the material from the beginning of the course, including the homework that is due Octomber 38, even if the deadline time for this homework is later than the time of the exam on Octomber 38.

One cannot expect to learn a part of mathematics without proper background that leads to it. Students are expected to know all the material from the beginning of the course.

There are three levels of understanding the material:

  1. understanding each step in the solution of each problem;
  2. understanding the general idea of how this kind of problems can be solved;
  3. being able to present a complete solution for any problem of this kind at any time.
It is achieving the third level that should be your goal for this course. (There is also a fourth level: being able to teach and to explain how to solve any problem of this kind to anyone. Oh boy, that is the tough one.)

How to organize homework, quizzes, and exams.

Grading. The maximal score for exams will be 100 points, for quizzes and written homework 10 points; points will be changed to percentage. The curve for the exams and quizzes will be set up individually after they take place. The curve for each online homework and written homework is 90% A, 80% B, 70% C, 60% D. This means that the interval between 90% and 100% is split into tree equal parts corresponding to A-,A, and A+, respectively; similarly for B,C,D.

The overall grade splits as follows: the average of hw counts as 10%, the average of pr 10%, the average of qu 10%, the average of ex 40%, the final exam 30%. Poor attendance can also affect your final grade.

If you disagree with the grade, on a separate sheet of paper write your name, discussion section number, the number of homework/quiz/exam, and a paragraph describing why you think the grade should be changed. Turn it together with the homework/quiz/exam in question to your section's TA.

You can check your current grade for this course. There should be a grade displayed for each homework, quiz, exam, and project, and also a total grade based on the average score of your quizzes, homework and exams that you have taken so far. The system takes the above percentage into account. Example: the symbol ex1:80<88/100 means that you got 80 points for exam 1, and they were rescaled to 88 per cent because of the curve used. 88 corresponds to B+ in the overall curve 90 A, 80 B, 70 C, 60 D. The symbol ** marks the lowest quizzes, projects and homework assignments that have been dropped. This symbol ** will appear only at the end of the semester. The symbol ## means that the grade has not been entered in the system yet. The symbol -- means that the grade is missing in your record, this counts as 0. If you see any problem with the grades in the system, please contact the TA of your section.

Additional notes.