Success in this course:

A. General advice:

Success in this course depends largely on your attitude and effort. Attendance and participation in class is critical. It is not effective to sit and copy notes without following the thought processes involved in the lecture. For example, you should try to answer the questions posed by your lecturer. Students who do not actively participate have much more difficulty. However, be aware that much of the learning of mathematics at the university takes place outside of the classroom. You need to spend time reviewing the concepts of each lecture before you attempt homework problems.

It can be very helpful to study with a group. This type of cooperative learning is encouraged, but be sure it leads to a better conceptual understanding.

B. Advice specifically for this class:

To do well in this class, you must have done well in your calculus sequence. Of particular importance is your ability to work with infinite series and with integration of functions which may have one or several arguments. For that reason, Math 323 is a course prerequisite.

There is a substantial positive correlation between success in this course and success in "engineering math" classes such as your standard Math 223 - Math 227 Nevertheless, be mindful of the following which alerts you to the fact that you need to digest maths which is not of a computational nature.

If you review my lecture notes, you will notice that I am making more demands on your ability to think in abstract mathematics than you may have encountered in your multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra course. That is particularly true in the beginning of the course when I present the foundations of probability as a mathematical subject. Read my lecture notes with a pencil in your hand and rewrite that definition or theorem with a specific function or list of numbers.

Each homework contains a list of reading assignments. This way you will know what course material you must be prepared for by which date. You will be asked to review the material before it is taught in class. This is not enforceable, but if you follow this suggestion, then you know when to pay close attention during lecture, because I am addressing a topic that you had problems understanding. Again, I encourage you to form a group.

Avoid failure:

It is your responsibility to keep informed of all announcements, syllabus adjustments, or policy changes, regardless of whether they were made by email, on MyCourses, or during class.

Unless you are very certain that you will do sufficiently well in this or any other class, keep your options open! Be sure that you can withdraw without losing your financial support or, if you are an international student, your student status!