Math 310 - Fall 2013

Section Information

Class Time Location Instructor Office Hours (Cupples I, Room 116)
Math 310 MWF 10:00am - 11:00am January 110 John Shareshian TBA
Math 310W additional lecture M 11:00am - 12:00pm Eads 103 John Shareshian TBA

Please include Math 310 in the subject line of any email message that pertains to this course. This is particularly important if you send the email from a yahoo or hotmail account instead of a cec or artsci account. It will help avoid accidental deletion of your still unread message. My e-mail address is shareshi@math.wustl.edu.

Text

A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics, 3rd edition by M. Liebeck

Grading Information

There will be two midterm exams during the semester, and a final exam. The final will be held on Monday, December 16 from 10:30am to 12:30pm. The midterms will occur on dates to be determined, during the regular lecture time.

Your final grade will be based on your performance on the three exams, and on weekly homework assignments. Each midterm will account for 20% of your final grade. The final exam will account for 40% of your final grade, and your cumulative homework grade will account for 20%.

I hope and expect that scores on the exams and homework assignments will be such that letter grades will be assigned so that students earning at least 90% of the possible points in their cumulative score will receive some form of A, students earning between 80% and 90% of the possible points will receive some form of B, students earning between 65% and 80% of the possible points will receive some form of C, students earning between 50% and 65% of the possible points will receive a D and the remaning students will receive an F. I will change these cut-offs if and only if I find it necessary and appropriate. I will not under any circumstances deviate from the grading scheme chosen at the end of the semester in order to make changes to one person's letter grade for the benefit (or detriment) of that individual.

You are expected to take the exams at their scheduled times. If you are away because of a university sporting event or field trip, then you may arrange for your coach or professor to administer the exam. Excused absences may be granted in the case of illness or bereavement, at my discretion. The final exam date cannot be changed for reasons of traveling convenience.

Course plan

I hope to cover the first twenty sections in the textbook. If prior experience is a good indicator, my hope will not be fulfilled. As the book consists of short chapters on various topics and my goal is to lead you to a state of mathematical maturity sufficient for you to succeed in our upper level classes, rather than to cover specific topics at length, there will be no serious harm done if we do not cover all of the chapters. At the end of each lecture, I will tell you what I plan to cover in the next few lectures. If I forget, PLEASE REMIND ME to do so.

Help Resources

I intend to assign some difficult homework problems. Listed below are two ways to get help with hard problems or for understanding some material a little better:

Office Hours

I will set office hours after polling the class during the first lecture or two. Please feel free to come to office hours to discuss any of the material we cover in class or any assigned (or unassigned) problem from the textbook. If you can't make it to the regularly scheduled office hours due to a conflict with other academic activity, you may contact me and I will try my best to find another time. I cannot guarantee that I will fulfill all requests for special office hours in a class of this size.

Study Groups

I will facilitate the formation of study groups as follows. During the first lecture, I will ask everyone who is interested in joining a study group to send me an email with the times she or he is available. Once I have received your emails, I will distribute a list of names, email addresses and times available. I will then leave it to you to contact each other to form study groups. YOU ARE PERMITTED TO GET HELP ON HOMEWORK PROBLEMS FROM ME, OTHER STUDENTS, OR ANYONE ELSE. HOWEVER, YOU MUST WRITE YOUR OWN ANSWER IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

Academic Integrity

I will follow the University's academic integrity policy. If you have any concern or question about this policy or academic integrity in this class, please contact me.

John Shareshian
shareshi@math.wustl.edu
Cupples I, Room 116
(314) 935 - 6786 (office phone)

Department of Mathematics
Washington University
Campus Box 1146
Saint Louis
Missouri, 63130 USA.


Last Updated: August 27, 2013

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