Math 10B Spring 2024

Location and Times

Evans 10, 1-2pm Monday Wednesday Friday

Office hours: Evans 971, 2-3pm Monday Wednesday Friday

Email: norman.sheu@berkeley.edu

Due to the large amount of emails I receive, I do not respond to questions that are already explained clearly in this document, in particular topics related to enrollment, make-up exams, exam drops, how to calculate final grades, and grade distributions.

Course Description 

The sequence Math 10A, Math 10B is intended for majors in the life sciences. Elementary combinatorics and discrete and continuous probability theory.  Representation of data, statistical models and testing. 

Please see here for the math department's outline and expectations for the course: https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/overview/lowerdivcourses/math10B

Prerequisites

Math 10A or Math 1A

Textbook 

Biocalculus: Calculus, Probability, and Statistics for the Life Sciences (custom UC Berkeley Edition) by Stewart (ISBN: 9781305114036)

Discrete Mathematics by Rosen (ISBN: 9781260836530)

Statistics by Freedman, Pisani, Purves (ISBN: 9780393929720)

Enrollment

The enrollment is entirely done online. I have no control of the enrollment process. If you have any questions about enrollment, first check the website:

https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/enrollment

For other enrollment questions, please email:

enrollment@math.berkeley.edu

Grade Breakdown  

Homework: 20%

Midterm 1: 25%

Midterm 2: 25%

Final: 30%

There is also extra credit for discussion attendance. Please read the Extra Credit section for more details. 

The class grade distribution will be based on what is recommended by the math department. 

Homework

Homework will be collected once a week in section on Thursday. You must submit a physical copy. Do not email your homework assignments to your GSI. Five problems wil be chosen at random to be graded for completion. No credit is given for homework turned in after the due date. Working with others is encouraged, but you must write your solutions on your own and write the names of your collaborators at the top of the assignment. 

Exams

There will be two midterms and one final. All midterms will be held in lecture during regular class hours. Midterms and finals will not be conducted remotely under any circumstances. There are no make-up midterms or final. 

The first midterm will be held on Wednesday 2/21.

The second midterm will be held on Wednesday 4/3. 

The time and location of the final exam can be found on CalCentral. 

All exams are cumulative.

No calculators or cheat sheets are allowed in exams. 

There is no regrading, unless there is a clear error on the part of the grader, such as adding up marks incorrectly or forgetting to grade a question. If you write a correct answer for a problem but your reasoning is mysterious, incorrect, or nonexistent then you will not get credit for it. 

If you don't understand why you lost points on a question, please ask; but the number of points deducted cannot be changed, because we grade all the exams together according to the same standards, so regrading individual exams would be unfair to everyone else. 

Extra Credit

If you attend all discussions in a week that has two discussion sections, you will receive extra credit that will add 0.375% to your final grade. A maximum of 3% can be added this way, which is equivalent to attending all the discussions in any eight weeks that have two discussion sections. How attendance is taken is up to the discretion of your GSI, which can range from simply checking in to participating in some way in disucssion. Extra credit is applied after a grade distribution is determined. 

Grading Details

We are aware that a number of students will miss a midterm exam or a homework assignment due to a variety of reasons. This is why we have implemented generous replacement or dropping rules. The purpose of these rules is precisely to alleviate the impact of such absences. 

The homework assignments to be dropped and exam replacement policy are not intended as a back-up for slacking off, lagging behind the material, or catching up due to unsatisfactory academic performance on previous exams. 

We will not be able to offer further accommodations like make-up exams or further drops or replacements. If you think that these rules did not fully cover your absences, then you can email us at the end of the semester and we will review your case. The only exception to the above is if you have an official Letter of Accommodation issues by the DSP office and that requests accommodation for missed exams or if your absence is related to your DSP accommodations (your DSP specialist will need to verify this with us). In this case, please contact us and we will try to find an arrangement. 

Please don't share doctor's notes with us or any other documents containing private information. For privacy reasons, we cannot ask for doctor's notes. Therefore, we also cannot accept them for equity reasons. Otherwise, your classmates would be forced to release private information in order to receive the same accommodations. The only document that we accept is your official Letter of Accommodation issued by the DSP office. 

Your lowest three homework assignment scores will not be used when calculating your final grade. 

If your final percentage score is higher than one of your midterm percentage scores, then the midterm with a lower percentage score will be replaced by the final percentage score, i.e. at most one midterm can be replaced by the final. 

If you miss any midterm, your final exam percentage score replace the missed midterm's percentage score. Your final exam score CANNOT replace both midterm scores, regardless if you took both exams or if you took one and missed the other. If you miss both midterms or the final, you will fail the class. This is regardless of the performance for your other items for this course. 

The general difficulty for the exam is Midterm 1 <= Midterm 2 <= Final. There is no point to “strategically” miss any exam.

Academic Integrity

Cheating is unacceptable. 

Students found cheating on homework will receive a score of 0 on that homework. 

Students found cheating on a midterm wil receive a 0 on that midterm and their overall grade will be reduced by one letter grade at the end of the semester. (For instance, if your grade is a B+, it will be lowered to a C+.) If your grade was previously above the pass/no-pass threshold, we will not drop it lower than to a C-. If your grade was a D+ or below, it will be adjusted to an F. 

Final exam scores will not replace midterm scores given a 0 as a result of cheating. 

Students found cheating on both midterms will receive an automatic F in the course. 

Students found cheating on the final exam will receive an automatic F in the course. 

Any student caught cheating will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Student Community Standards, and if found responsible for academic misconduct may receive sanctions ranging up to suspension or dismissal from the university. 

DSP

Students with disabilities requiring accomodations for exams must submit a letter of accomodation from the Disabled Students Program and contact me at least two weeks in advance of any exam so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Requests may not be accomodated if this deadline is not met. 

Please schedule to take all exams through DSP proctoring services. The math department is unable to provide accommodations to all DSP students. If you do not have accommodations or do not schedule accommodations with DSP, then you will need to take your exam under regular testing conditions with the rest of the class. 

Incomplete Grades

Grades of Incomplete will be granted only for direct medical or personal emergencies that cause you to miss the final, and only if you have completed the majority of the coursework and your work up to that point is of passing quality. 

Information for incomplete grades can be found here. 

Falling behind in the course or a heavy workload in other courses are not acceptable reasons for requesting an incomplete.  

If you miss a midterm (for whatever reasons), you will very likely not qualify for an incomplete, as your grade before the final exam will include a 0 on that midterm, which will not have been “replaced” by the final at the time of requesting the incomplete grade.

Discussions and GSI Office Hours

You must attend the discussion you are enrolled in. You may go to any GSI's office hours. 

GSI Contact Information and Office Hours

Seewoo Lee, seewoo5@berkeley.edu 

Jordan Brown, lc_brown@berkeley.edu

Zoe McDonald, zoe_mcdonald@berkeley.edu 

Aubrey Gross, aubrey_gross@berkeley.edu 

Weekly Lecture Schedule

This is a rough outline of when and what topics will be covered. Please note that topics many be moved forward or backward depending how that pace of lecture. Please note that certain topics may be covered either more in depth or less in depth than presented in the course textbooks. 

(B), (D), and (S) refers to the biocalculus, discrete mathematics, and statistics textbook, respectively. 

1/17, 19: 12.1 (B) 

1/22, 24, 26: 6.1 (D), 6.2 (D) 

1/29, 31, 2/2: 6.3(D) 6.4 (D) 

2/5, 7, 9: 6.5 (D), 12.2 (B) 

2/12, 14, 16: 7.1 (D), 7.2 (D) 

2/21, 23: 12.3 (B) 

2/26, 28, 3/1: 7.3 (D), 12.4 (B) 

3/4, 6, 8: 12.4 (B), 7.4 (D) 

3/11, 13, 15: 12.5 (B), 4 (S) 

3/18, 20, 22: 5 (S), 16 (S), 17 (S), 18 (S)  

4/1, 3, 5: 13.1 (B), 19 (S), 20 (S) 

4/8, 10, 12: 13.2 (B), 21 (S), 22 (S) 

4/15, 17, 19: 13.3 (B), 26 (S), 27 (S) 

4/22, 24, 26: 13.4 (B), 28 (S)