Prerequisites:

Strong background in algebra. No political science background is required. If you are not sure MATH 123Y is the right class for you, please talk to me.

Workload:

You are expected to exert a good amount of effort in working through the course material, and you should not be discouraged if a certain topic remains elusive when you first encounter it: read your class notes, try some homework problems, talk to me in office hours, and collaborate with your peers. Some tips on how to study math are given on the materials and handouts page. The typical student will need to put in between 8 and 10 hours per week going over the notes and the material in the textbook and working on the assigned problem sets. If you find you are consistently spending more than 12 hours on problem sets, please discuss this with me so that I can help you manage the time you spend on this class more effectively.

Attendance:

Since this an online class and some of you might live in different time zones, attendance is not mandatory. However, I stronly encourage you to attend class regularly.

If you think you will be missing class frequently, you should contact me so we can discuss this. If you have to miss class occassionally due to an emergency or illness, you do not have to let me know, but make sure to watch the class lecture videos later on your own. Keep in mind that it is doubtful that you will do well in the course if you miss too many lectures; the homeworks will be based on the material taught in class.

Solutions:

I will do my best to provide you with the solutions to the problem sets and exams. However, please keep in mind that I am under no obligation to do this and may in fact not be able to do it for all the assignments. It is your responsibility to solve all the problems (if you want to) and are of course more than welcome to talk to me about them.

Calculators:

Calculators are not required for this class. You may find them helpful in working out some of the homework problems, but I will try to assign exercises for which this should not be necessary. Further, calculators will not be allowed on exams. The emphasis in this course will be less on computation and more on understanding the mathematics itself, and reliance on calculators can unfortunately work against this process.

Electronic devices:

Please silence your phones and put them away during class. Same should be done with all other electronic devices, such as tablets and laptops (except of course for the one you are using to Zoom into class), unless the use of such a device is necessitated by a documented disability.

Academic integrity:

You are expected to read and understand the college's Honor Code. Incidents where academic integrity is compromised will be dealt with severely. Although most students have a good feel for what constitutes a violation of the Honor Code, for this class you will also need to be familiar with my policy on homework collaboration (see the grading page). Please be sure to read it carefully to avoid an inadvertent violation of the Honor Code.

Important dates:

Please familiarize yourself with the important dates listed on this webpage (meeting dates, exam dates, etc.). Also familiarize yourself with the college-wide important dates such as breaks, holidays, add/drop deadline, credit/non deadline, reading period, finals period, and so on. All of these dates are listed on the registrar’s website. It is your responsibility to stay abreast of the deadlines and other scheduling matters. If there are any changes in the schedule, either for our class or at the college, I will announce them in class.