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Senior Member
Real name: Michael
Program: Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
Year: Other
Residence: SOCS!
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 234
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20 Times
Liked:
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I took this course in Winter 2012 with Dr. Krepski (who was a very good prof, IMO) because I needed an elective and I enjoyed the vector component of the high school Calculus & Vectors course. It was also strongly recommended for my program (PNB) -- as for why, I'm guessing it's useful with computational neuroscience, neuroimaging, and stuff along those lines.
We began the course by introducing the concept of a matrix to solve systems of linear equations (remember these from grade 10 math?), using elementary row operations. We then learned about matrix inverses and transposes, before moving on to the chapter on vectors, which was essentially review from the grade 12 course and was only briefly tested on the first midterm, never to be mentioned again. Afterwards, vector spaces and subspaces were introduced, and then we discussed linear independence, span, null spaces, basis, and dimension. Then, we moved onto matrix transformations, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
The material in the course is extremely abstract, and I had to do a lot of independent learning to try to get the concepts straightened out in my head. Sometimes it was easy to mix things up after the vector space portion of the course. If you keep on top of your homework though, you should be fine.
One thing I disliked about this course was that the concept of determinants was introduced near the course's end, whereas the textbook used it very early on. This was a choice made by the professor that I understood, but didn't necessarily agree with.
The course had various grading schemes. I will discuss the main components with the most common grading scheme.
GROUP QUIZZES (best 2 of 3 totalling 10% in all schemes):
You were randomly assigned into groups with whom you were allowed to discuss the quiz questions displayed on the overhead for 10 minutes. After that, you wrote the quiz individually. Your marks were a blend of your own (75%) and your group's (25%). The lowest mark was dropped. I disliked this component, mainly because my group members were usually unprepared or wouldn't talk.
2 TESTS (20% each):
There is a T/F component and several computational questions. The T/F is harder than you'd expect and requires a strong knowledge of the concepts (hence why you need to work through them in your head). I found the second test much easier than the first, but that's because it took me longer than most to absorb the material, so by that point, I had a much stronger grasp of the course content.
WILEYPLUS ASSIGNMENTS (10% if done):
You a week per assignment and unlimited attempts per question without penalty. Therefore, if you do all assignments and answer all questions, you'll get the full 10% for this portion.
EXAM (40%):
I thought this was a bit more challenging than the tests, and unfortunately, this bumped my grade down a point. You really have to make sure you practice, because some computations (such as the determinant) have lots of work involved, and it's easy to mix up signs, or mess up arithmetic and throw off your entire answer! Make sure you study for this!
Overall, I was extremely pleased with this course. I only got an 8 in Math 1LS3 (probably due to being in first-year and not studying properly), but I managed to get an 11 in 1B03 in my third year (despite not going to half of the lectures or so), so a good mark is attainable, even if you're not a math major or math genius. This is a refreshing break from memorization-heavy courses, and I've always liked doing math homework, because it's simply practice and application, which is so different from most other subjects. The material is a bit abstract and boring at times, but if you're looking for a good elective, TAKE.THIS.COURSE!
Jason036
says thanks to _Mike for this post.
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