Intro to Higher Math
Math 311T - Fall 2009

Instructor: Adam Sikora 115 Mathematics Building
Email: asikora at buffalo dot edu
Office hours: Tu,Th 2-3pm, and by appointment.
Class meets: Tu,Th 9:30-10:50, 454 Fronczak
Recitations: Tu 8-8:50, 112 OBRIAN, starting Sep 8.
TA: Lavinia Ciungu, Office: 125 Math Bldg, 645-6284 x 161, Email: lcciungu at buffalo dot edu
TA's office hours: Tue 11-1pm, Rm 125 and Math Help Center Th 12-1, Rm 107/110.
Prerequisite: Math 241 or equivalent.
Text: A pdf file will be available on-line via UBLearns.
Recommended supplemental text: Mathematical Proofs, A Transition to Advanced Mathematics by Chartrand, Polimeni, and Zhang.

How to do well in this course: This is a very difficult course, because it covers some very abstract material. You are expected to understand it really well and to be able to come up with proofs during tests and quizzes. You should plan on spendin g a minimum of 10 hours a week in preparation/homework.
The beginning of the course seems easy. Do not be misled; it is much harder than it looks. Come to class, take good notes, go over the lectures every night after class, meet with your study group, ask questions on the material you do not understand, do th e homework, participate in class and recitation, and get help as soon as you begin to fall behind. The most important thing is to study hard and to know the definitions and theorems. Help is available from me (before or after class; or e-mail for an appoi ntment) and from the TA. You will find it useful to make flash cards for definitions and propositions.
Study Groups: The class will be divided into study groups. Each study group should meet at least once a week to go over homework and prepare for quizzes and tests. You may move to another group if you wish and some shifting of the groups to achiev e better balance may occur after the first few weeks.
Tests: There will be three tests in class. You are required to know the material in the lectures, the notes (even if not covered in lecture, except as indicated), the homework and quizzes. Only non-graphing, non-programmable, non-alphanumeric calc ulators are permitted on exams/quizzes. Cell phones & pdas must be stowed away.
Preliminary test schedule: Oct 6, Nov 3, Dec 10.
You are expected to attend each exam as scheduled, unless you have a documented medical or other valid excuse. IDs will be checked. Contact me before taking an exam if you are seriously ill.
Quizzes: There will be a short quiz in each recitation on the recent material. No makeups will be given, but the 2 lowest marks will be dropped without penalty.
Additionally, there may be some simple quizzes during lectures.
Homework: due in Th class. Homework counts toward your grade. No late homework will be accepted, but the 2 lowest marks will be dropped without penalty. Each homework assignment will consist of a large number of problems, of which only some proble ms (not specified beforehand) will be graded. You may work jointly on homework with your study group or other members of the class, but you must write up the problems on your own.
Homework guidelines:

Final grade will be based on HW (and in-class quizzes if they are given), 100pts, and the best of Therefore, total number of points is 400.
360pts guarantees A if you receive at least 75% on last test.
352pts guarantees A- if you receive at least 60% on last test.
The final grades will be curved.
The average Mth 311 final grade distribution in the recent years was as follows:
A 25%, A- 4%, B+ 8%, B 18%, B- 9%, C+ 4%, C 14%, C- 5%, D+ 5%, D 6%, F 16%.
Most likely the grade distribution in this class will be similar.

Resignation and Incomplete: The last day to resign from the course is Friday, November 7. Incompletes will only be given for reasons beyond your control, serious illness. You must be passing the course to get an incomplete. University policy is that if you receive an 'I’ grade (incomplete), then you are also assigned a default grade, which is the grade you have already earned averaged with a 0 on the remaining work. It is easy to see that even a good student will normally re ceive an 'F' as the default grade. This appears on your transcript, as 'I/F', until you make up the incomplete or 15 months elapse, when you would receive the default grade (you would receive the F in this example).
Making up an incomplete: Students who received an 'I' in a previous 311 class should not register for this class, but must file a petition form with the Math Department. See Rose Marciniak in 237 Math (9:00 -12:00). Note: after Friday, September 5, there is no way to drop a course you have petitioned to take; you will receive whatever grade you have earned in the new course as your grade for the incomplete (even if this new grade is lower than the default grade.)