Home page for Math 135, large lectures; Fall, 1997

The majority of students in this course are planning to major in biology, pharmacy, or business, all of which require at least one semester of calculus. Other students from such majors as psychology who think they may need "more" mathematics also take Math 135. Calculus is a wonderful intellectual achievement - there are even some students who take the course to see how beautiful the subject is! Here's the official course description:

01:640:135-136. CALCULUS I, II (4,4)

For liberal arts majors. Prerequisite for 135: 01:640:112 or 115 or appropriate performance on the placement test in mathematics. Prerequisite for 136: CALC1. Credit restrictions: CR1, CR2.

Math 135: Analytic geometry, differential calculus, applications, and introduction to integral calculus. Math 136: Transcendental functions, techniques of integration, polar coordinates, and series.

Syllabus

The syllabus for the course is available in various formats:

html (a web page)

Postscript

TeX

The html version is easy to view. The Postscript version can be printed on one page. The plain TeX version is useful for those who may wish to edit it.

Review Problems

Here are review problems for the exams. Please realize that the problems are only designed to be suggestions for student study. The exams during the semester will be written by individual lecturers, and different teaching emphasis may well lead to exams with somewhat different problems. The "gif" alternative in the table is the simplest, but look below for further information.

Review problems for exam #1	gif	Postscript	TeX	A joke	Answers
Review problems for exam #2	gif	Postscript	TeX	Another joke	Answers
Review problems for the final exam	gif	Postscript	TeX	A final joke	Answers

Advice about format Current web standards do not include widely implemented ways of handling mathematical notation, and therefore several alternatives are offered.
gif Gifs are generally accepted by browsers. File size is not large so network transmission isn't usually long, but the images (especially for tiny mathematical symbols!) can be unsatisfactory.
Postscript The images are better, but files are larger so transmission times are apt to be perceptibly longer, and sometimes browsers aren't equipped to handle Postscript. Important A very nice printed version can be produced from the Postscript file, so learning how to print such files may be worthwhile. Such information is site-specific: ask your local computer guru.
TeX Please use the TeX version if you need the "raw" files and want to edit them. But read the first few lines of the TeX file carefully to learn how to include the images in the final printed product.

Real exams

This is the first semester we are attempting substantial coordination in our large lecture sections of Math 135. Most of the students will be taking versions of a final exam written by one person, with grading substantially directed by that person. Students may want to see how exams are formatted and the way questions are phrased and graded. So here are versions of the first and second exams written by "the management" as they were actually given, along with answers and detailed grading guidelines. The cover sheets for the exams are shown here last although they appear first in the physical exams. The paragraph above discusses some differences between gif and Postscript formats.
Now also presented here are the following: one version of the final exam actually given, along with grading guidelines and a brief discussion of the exam results.

	The exam as given		Answers to the exam		Grading guidelines
Exam #1	gif	Postscript	gif	Postscript	html (a web page)
Exam #2	gif	Postscript	gif	Postscript	html (a web page)
Final exam	gif	Postscript	Not available		html (a web page)

Graphing Calculators

The syllabus remarks that "Graphing calculators may be used on exams but calculators and computers with QWERTY keyboards or symbolic differentiation and integration programs are not allowed." We strongly recommend that students own and be able to use a graphing calculator. One suitable graphing calculator which is most familiar to the instructional staff is the TI-82. We certainly won't use all the power of this instrument, but will concentrate on straightforward applications such as those described in this nice tutorial.

Beginning the course

The first day of class is important to both students and instructors. Good luck to everyone!

Comments? Questions??

Here is a pointer to a page giving information likely to be useful to students in Math 135. I'll also try to post replies to questions of general interest. If you think you have such a question, please send mail.

Here are the dates and titles of the entries, suitably linked:

9/2/97 What about CD-ROM's, Study Guides, etc.?

9/2/97 Sources for further help in the course

9/24/97 Answers to the review problems?

10/10/97 What about ALL the answers to the review problems?