Syllabus for MTH 133, Fall Semester, 2011

 

Lecture: 12:40pm - 1:30pm (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), C206 WH

Office Hour: 1:30pm - 2:30pm (Monday, Wednesday), appointed. D214 WH

Recitations: 12:40pm - 1:30pm (Tuesday), C112 WH

TA: k. kasebian, A116 WH, kasebian@msu.edu

TA Office Hour: 4:00pm - 5:00pm (Tuesday)

Text Book: G.B. Thomas, M.D. Weir, J. Hass, Thomas' Calculus, 12th edition, Addison Wesley, 2009

ISBN-10: 0321587995, ISBN-13: 970-031587992

Coverage: Sections 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 7.1-7.7, 8.1-8.5, 8.7, 10.1-10.10, 11.1-11.5.

Common Final Exam: Monday, December 12th, 10:00 am-12:00 pm.

All students are required to take the Common Final Exam. The university has strict requirements for exceptions. (See the third paragraph.)

Exams:

There will be four 50-minutes exams; see the schedule for the dates. No notes, no books, no calculators, no phones, no tablets, no computers will be allowed in the exams. Students are expected to take all exams. Your instructor may decide to take short quizzes during the semester.

WeBWorK Log-in and Fees:

Graded homework will be handled electronically through a WeBWorK server in the Mathematics Department at http://webwork.math.msu.edu/webwork2/MTH_133_FS11_HU/. Students should log in using the following information:

    Userid: Student MSUNet ID. (What comes before @ in your MSU email address.)

    Password: Student PID. (Of the form A********, include the A.)

Students should change their password the first time they log in. There is a WeBWorK Fee of $30, although WeBWorK can be used for free until the fourth class week. After the second week of class students will be emailed with instructions how to pay the fee. Instructors and TAs will not handle any payments.

WeBWorK Homework:

  • Completing the assigned homework is vital to your understanding of the subject material. You should make every effort to complete the homework assignments and seek help with problems you have not been able to solve.
  • WebWork problems are similar to the problems in the class textbook. It is important that students do the first WebWork assignment, Learning WeBWorK Tutorial, where the students learn how to enter answers, handle mathematical symbols, simplify complicated expressions in WeBWorK. This assignment has the same credit as all the rest of the WeBWorK assignments.
  • Check the Schedule for tentative WebWorK assignments due dates; note however that the most up-to-date due date will always be given on the asignment itself on the WeBWorK server. Prior to the due date students can try as often as they wish to solve each WebWorK problem, getting immediate feedback as to whether the answer is correct or incorrect. Answers to WeBWorK assignments are available shortly after the due dates.
  • There is a three-day reduced credit period for most WeBWorK assignments. If you get a part of a problem correct before the beginning of the reduced credit period, you will receive 100% of the partial credit allowed for that part of the problem. Otherwise, getting that same part of the problem correct in the reduced credit period will only earn you 75% of the partial credit allowed for that part of the problem. Note that once you have earned partial or full credit for a problem you will never lose that credit, even if you accidentally change an answer which has already been marked correct to an incorrect answer at a later time.
  • The grade of each WeBWorK assignment is the percentage of correct problems in the assignment. The average over all WebWorK assignments is your WeBWorK grade.

Attendance:

Students are expected to attend all class meetings and are responsible for all of the material covered in class. Any changes in this syllabus or in the scheduling of exams, WeBWorK, etc. will be announced during class meetings.

Gateway Exams Information:

There will be two 75-minutes Gateway Exams, taken in B-110G Wells Hall. See the schedule for the dates. Bring your MSU ID to the exam. Gateways Exams are individualized, computer generated, no partial credit tests, with a near perfect score required for passing. Each student gets multiple opportunities to pass each exam. See the MSU Gateway page for further information.

Grading Gateway Exams:

There is no partial grading. Passing Gateway Exam I is 7/8 problems. Passing Gateway Exam II is 8/9 problems. Each Gateway Exams is assigned a grade 1 for passing, 0 for not passing.

Course Grading:

Your course grade will be based on the maximum of the following two decompositions:

    • 10% Gateway Exams
    • 12% WeBWorK (lowest dropped)
    • 12% Exam 1
    • 12% Exam 2
    • 12% Exam 3
    • 12% Exam 4
    • 30% Final Exam
    • 10% Gateway Exams
    • 12% WeBWorK (lowest dropped)
    • 36% Best 3 of 4 Exams (12% each)
    • 42% Final Exam

In addition, you must take the final examination in order to pass the course. Since there are no makeup exams, if you miss an exam for any reason, your grade will be based on option 2.

Final grades will be assigned based on the following scale.

4.03.53.02.52.01.51.00.0
[100, 90](90, 85](85, 80](80, 75](75, 70](70, 65](65, 60]Below 60

This scale may be curved to be more lenient, depending on the final grade distribution. However, such a curve is at the sole discretion of the instructor.

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty is considered a serious offense at MSU. Students caught cheating may face failure in the course and an administrative sanction which may include suspension or expulsion from the university. See the MSU Academic Integrity Policies.

Important Dates:

  • 08/31/2011: Class begins.
  • 09/05/2011: Labor day. No class. University Closed.
  • 09/07/2011: Open adds end at 8:00pm.
  • 09/14/2011: Last day to late add a course, change sections within a course or to drop to a lower level course.
  • 09/26/2011: Last day to drop a course with 100% refund. No refunds after this date.
  • 10/19/2011: Last day to drop with no grade reported, at 8:00pm. Middle of Semester.
  • 11/24/2011, 11/25/2011: Thanksgiving. No classes. University closed.
  • 12/09/2011: Last day of class.
  • 12/12/2011: Final exam, 10:00am -12:00 noon.

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