faq

Frequently answered questions

How can I best succeed in your class?

I teach mathematics and computer science to undergraduate and graduate students. The following advice applies to undergrads. Presumably, graduate students know how to succeed or else they would not have reached this far.

Most elementary (100-300 level) mathematics classes at the undergraduate level, especially service courses (i.e. course for non-mathematics majors) are easy, dreadfully easy; yet most of these classes have 40% to 60% failure rates. This is true across classes, professors and universities all over the country. Why is that? I believe it is because students fresh out of high school have no clue how to work at mathematics. They seem used to classes where showing up, half awake, is enough to pass. Not in my class nor in any of my colleague's class. You have to be awake and you have to work. Specifically you have to do problems, then more problems, then some more problems. And when you think you have done enough, you do more problems.You have to do them intelligently (more on this later). Every textbook has thousands of problems. Do them all and you will succeed. I guarantee you that you will succeed. Do only a couple of problems per week and I can almost guarantee that you will fail. Is that not nice? You have a recipe that guarantees you will pass the course. Please apply it!

In computer science, essentially nobody fails. It may partly be because people who take CS are interested in the material and want to understand. People are rarely forced to take CS classes. But, if you want advice for a CS class here it is: pay attention to details and understand every algorithm presented and every language construct! The one type of mistake that I see with any regularity is in classes with a fair amount of programming. The mistake is what I would call cut-and-paste programming. This is when a student does not really understand the language or the algorithm but has found somewhere (usually on the 'net) a piece of code that seems to be doing almost what he wants. He then proceeds to cut-and-paste that piece of code on his homework and attempts to modify it. This leads to two things, usually: horrendous code and a deeper misunderstanding of the problem at hand. Usually a homework is meant to improve understanding but using this technique almost always leads to students getting deeper into an intellectual morass of incomprehension.

What is the best way to get in touch with the instructor?

The best ways are, in order:

• In class, during lectures : Be there and ask questions! I am always surprised by the surprise of students who fail a test after missing my lectures or keeping silent during lectures. You should attend, in mind and body, all my lectures. By attending, I don't mean that your only task is to keep the room warm; you attend by following actively and understanding the material as it is presented. If you don't understand, raise your hand. If you are too weak to raise your hand, ask a neighbour to do it for you and check yourself into the nearest hospital after class.
• Immediately after class : I always stick around for a while. We have ample time to discuss material after class.
• On the discussion board : I have moved all my courses to Moodle or Blackboard. Every student is automatically added to the appropriate electronic section. This means that you have to be registered into a class I teach to access the discussion board of that class and your privacy is protected. Nobody outside of class knows what you are asking. You can ask questions there all day and all night long. I can answer, the TA can answer, some other student can answer (and I encourage this); Therefore it is the best possible place to ask questions outside of class.
• Email : I am addicted and read it more or less continuously
  • during the day. kruk@oakland.edu / kruk@american.edu This works especially well if you are too shy to ask questions on the bulletin board.
• In my office, during office hour : Posted on the syllabus of your class. Office Hour Protocol: I hold office hour by letting into my office every student who shows up and by answering questions in a round-robin manner. I may also redirect a question from one student to another one, correcting misunderstandings and clarifying the answer if required. I operate that way, primarily because that is the way my professors operated while I was a student and I like the procedure, but also because I know that the student who explains a concept to a colleague learns as much, if not more, than the one on the receiving end. I am helping two students instead of one in the same time frame.
  • Therefore, if you feel threatened by the presence of other students, let me know ahead of time that you want to meet me alone and I will setup a time to do so.
  • Be warned that, for every question you ask of the form "I don't know how to grok the szyszygy of a blob?", I will answer "Tell me the definitions of grok, szyszygy and blob". You better know the definitions before you step into my office. The first responsibility of any student who attempts problems of a given section of a textbook is to learn all the necessary definitions and theorems of the sections before attempting the problems.

Can I drop by the instructor's office unannounced to ask for help?

No! Let me repeat: NO! Email is the only interruption of my work that I tolerate. You may think you only interrupt me for five minutes but I have hundreds of students. You do the math.

I did all my homework and studied a lot for the test. Why am I doing so badly in the course?

This question is frequent and highlights the poor preparation some students have for a university education. Here are some obvious mistakes and fixes:

• First, you must understand that graded homework is usually only a small fraction of the work a typical student should be doing in a course. As an undergraduate student, long, long ago, I would usually do all the problems in the book. If you restrict yourself to the graded homework, you are only preparing for a fraction of the material.
• Second, how you do problems is important. Wrong method: Read a problem; ponder for a few seconds; go back to the section to find a similar problem solved by the author or the professor in class; mimic the solution. You may get the right answer but you have learned little or nothing! Right method: Read the lecture notes; Read the text section; Hide the solutions to the solved problems and try to reconstruct the solution, peeking only as needed to the solutions; Pick a set of problems at random from the section and try to solve them without looking at the solutions until you have tried all of them; After you can solve a random set of problems without looking at the solutions, not before, do the assigned homework.
• Third, studying for a course should be a constant, day-to-day activity, not a cram festival two days before a test. Every week, you should be doing problems, chosen randomly from all sections covered thus far in the book. Doing only the current section, you risk putting everything in short-term memory and you need it in long-term memory. Personal note: As a student, I rarely studied more than an hour for a final exam. Final exam week was a time I mostly spent at the gym or running outside. I did not need to study before the final; I had worked all through the semester and understood everything. I wish more of my students tried that approach.

I can never finish your tests, why?

Tests are not the best way we have of verifying that students have learned the material but, especially in elementary classes with a large number of students, I must resort to tests. This means that students must be ready to take tests. To be ready, it helps to have done problems under simulated test conditions: Whenever you think you are ready, that you have studied enough and have done enough problems. Pick up an old test of mine and try to do it under an hour, or whatever the time limit for the test is. I post old tests on my course page; there are copies floating around on campus. If you cannot find an old test, look at your textbook. Unless you have done all the problems already, you can certainly pick 10 or so at random and try to do them in an hour or less. (If you have done all the problems, you are ready; don't worry.)

How do I compute my grade (0-4) from percentages?

During the semester, and at the end, you can compute your OU grade on the 0-4 scale from your current grade in percentages. Below is the graph of the function that does it. Find your current percentage grade on the x-axis and read your OU grade on the y-axis. Note that if you get below 50%, you get 0.0.