This course will generally consist of two 50-minute lectures and one 50-minute recitation section per week, at the times listed above. During lectures, we will go over the course material as found in the textbook, work examples, and answer your (hopefully) many questions. Please do not use electronic devices during lecture unless instructed to do so.
During recitation, you will spend time working on problems in groups, going over problems with your teaching assistant, taking quizzes, and further discussing course material. You will also take the midterms in recitation section.
Attendance is required at all lectures and recitation sections. Classroom polling questions and quizzes in section both count toward your final grade. You must attend your assigned section — your attendance in a different section will not be counted.
There will generally be a quiz at the end of each recitation section (except when there is a midterm), covering the previous week's material. Quizzes also serve as practice for the exams. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
We will be using Piazza for online class discussion. The system is designed to get you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TAs, and myself. I will check Piazza regularly. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. You can access Piazza through T-Square.
I will post announcements on Piazza. These should forward to your email address. It is important that you read the announcements! I might have to reschedule a midterm, delete a homework problem, etc. Note that you will not receive announcement emails from Piazza until you login for the first time!
We will do classroom polling through Piazza in lecture, so bring a computer or smartphone to class with you. Responding to these questions counts toward your final grade — although it doesn't matter if your answer was correct. The lowest three poll scores will be dropped. Please do not use your electronic devices when not responding to a poll.
Homework will be assigned online each Friday, and will consist of exercises in WeBWorK (accessed through T-Square). You are responsible for understanding how to solve all homework exercises for exams and quizzes. Homework assignments will generally be due at 6am on Fridays. The lowest two homework grades will be dropped. No late homework will be accepted — no exceptions. Each homework assignment counts the same amount toward your grade.
Note that Friday's quiz in recitation section will be based closely on the homework assignment due that morning.
Most sections of Math 1553 use MyMathLab instead of WeBWorK for online homework. MyMathLab is a proprietary system provided by Pearson Publishing to people who purchase their textbooks. WeBWorK is an open-source system created by math teachers and distributed by the American Mathematical Association. The School of Math at Georgia Tech has been experimenting with WeBWorK over the last few years. Besides having several pedagogical advantages, it opens the door to potentially reducing textbook costs for students.
That said, this puts you somewhat into the role of guinea pigs. Although Math 1553 has been successfully taught with WeBWorK before, there are probably remaining bugs. (Stability issues affect both homework systems roughly equally, however.) Rest assured that you will not lose credit due to buggy problems. If you encounter any bugs, please report them to me!
If you get a funny error message when clicking the WeBWorK tab in T-Square, try closing the window and trying again. Like many other Georgia Tech websites, the authentication procedure sometimes requires two attempts to login. Other permission denied errors may be solved by deleting your browsers' cookies for the gatech.edu domain.
There will be a written assignment due near the end of the semester, in which you will give a 2–3 page exposition of some applications of linear algebra to whichever field you find most interesting.
There are three midterm examinations during the semester. Their dates can be found on the calendar. No books, notes, calculators, cell phones, or other electronic devices are allowed during exams. Each exam will be worth 15% of your final grade.
Absences from the midterms are generally excused only for Georgia Tech official business, religious holidays, serious illness, and the like. This does not include internships and interviews. I reserve the right to ask for a letter from the Dean of Students to justify an absence. In the event that you miss the midterm for an acceptable reason, you will be excused from that exam; the other midterms will then count more towards your grade.
The final exam will cover all course materials and will be administered on the date and time set by the Institute, namely, on Friday, December 9, from 8:00am–10:50am. All students must take the final exam to complete the course. It is worth 30% of your overall grade.
The grading breakdown is as follows. You can see your current score on T-Square, in the Grades tab.
The final exam score will be used to replace half of the lowest midterm score (assuming you score higher on your final than on one of the midterms).
Final letter grades will be calculated as follows:
A: [90%–100%], B: [80%–90%), C: [70%–80%), D: [60%–70%), F: [0%–60%)
These numbers are not necessarily set in stone, in that if the grade distribution is wildly unexpected, then the cutoffs may be moved down (but not up). Note however that by definition, I do not anticipate an unexpected grade distribution.
Progress report grades will be assigned on September 30. A satisfactory grade will be assigned to all students with a current grade of C or higher (based on the above weighting of grades).
Due to course policy, it is impossible for me to offer any extra credit.
Students are expected to fully adhere to Georgia Tech's honor code.