Math 120 Summer 2018 Section A

Precalculus

About this course

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This course is designed to prepare you for learning calculus. This course will help you develop the skills and stamina necessary to solve lengthy, multi-step problems, involving a variety of pre-calculus mathematical concepts. We will also work on developing algebraic sophistication, and confidence. There will be a lot of practice with many mathematical methods.

We’ll cover a large amount of material. You have likely seen much of the content before, but many topics will be new. The course is meant to train you to deal with long and difficult problems, so even when the concepts are familiar, the problems may still be challenging.

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays will be lectures, and you will be responsible for the material covered in each on. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be quiz sections where you will take quizzes work through longer problems in groups, and go over homework problems.

Instructor: Gabriel Dorfsman-Hopkins
TA: Kristine Hampton
Emails:

• Gabriel: gdh2[_at_]math.washington.edu
• Kristine: hamptkri[_at_]uw.edu

• Gabriel: Wednesday 9-10 and Friday 1-2 in PDL C-008-G.
• Kristine: Tuesday and Thursday 11-12 in the Math Study Center.

Homework: 15%
Quizzes: 10%
Midterm Exams (2): 20% and 25% for the lower and higher scores respectively
Final Exam: 30%

Grades are curved, so that your course grade will reflect your performance relative to the rest of the class rather than a fixed percentage scheme. Historically, the median grade in Math 120 is in the range of 2.5-3.0. If you get at least 95% overall, you will receive a 4.0. If you get at least 70% overall, you will receive at least a 2.0.

A grade of 2.5 or better in Math 120 is required to move on to Math 124. You will probably need to average about 70% or better on exams and quizzes to acheive this.

Math Study Center

Kristine and I will each have office hours twice a week where we will be available to answer questions related to homework and course material. Outside of these times, there is still extra help available! The Math Study Center is a tutoring center freely available to students enrolled in Math 120, and is a good place to work on homework, with access to tutors who will help you get through the sticky spots. It is located in the basement of the communications building. The hours are posted on the website. I very much recommend taking advantage of this resource.

Announcements

I will have a lecture on Tuesday July 3rd during quiz section hours in PCAR 293.

Look here for quiz and test solutions and statistics, as well as other announcements:

Quiz 1 solutions are here! Median was an 18/20.

Quiz 2 solutions are here! Median was a 15/20.

Quiz 3 solutions are here! Median was an 11/20.

Quiz 5 solutions are here! Median was an 18/20.

Quiz 6 solutions are here! Median was a 15/20.

Midterm 1 solutions are here! Median was 39/50.

Midterm 2 solutions are here! Median was a 37/60.

Resources

Electronic Version of the Textbook
Past Math 120 Exams
Math 120 Course Materials
Webassign help

Tentative Schedule

This may be adjusted as we move through the quarter. I will post an announcement and send out an email if a change to the schedule is made. Please read the chapter corresponding to a given lecture BEFORE the lecture, and come with any questions prepared.