MAST30005: Algebra

Two assignments (10 questions each) worth 10% each totaling 20%; Final exam worth 80%

I personally love pure Maths subjects, so despite my mark I thoroughly enjoyed this subject. The subject jumps straight into ring theory at the start and is fairly fast paced, the content itself takes awhile to make sense. The main thing that separates high achievers from low achievers is the ability to do difficult proofs, to be able to do proofs your knowledge of the content must be concrete, you need to practice proofs A LOT (which I didn't do). The subject does have a mechanical side in the sense that you learn techniques to diagonalise matrices, determine which polynomials are irreducible in , etc. Also being able to memorize theorems and give examples is paramount to getting a good score. I guess how I know how to do well in this subject is that in hindsight I know how to not do well. I would definitely recommend this subject to anyone who did linear algebra and enjoyed it. In second year group theory and linear algebra (a prerequisite for algebra) builds up from linear algebra.

No

Lawrence Reeves

Yes, from 1998 - 2010 (potentially more)

5/5

Lecture notes are provided to you. All recommended textbooks (Michael Artin, Algebra, 1st Ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1991 and B. Hartley and T.O. Hawkes, Rings, modules and linear algebra, 1st Ed. Chapman & Hall, London, 1970) are available at the Maths library in the mathematics and statistics building. I personally found the Internet and lecture notes to suffice so I didn't really use the textbooks.

3 x 1 hour lectures; 1 x 1 hour practice class

2011, Semester 1

59