MATH1141: Higher Mathematics 1A

Week 4 lab test was conducted as normal, but after moving online the lab test and assignment were conducted as usual - however, the usual 2 hour exam became an online 2 hour exam with a 3 hour time limit conducted on MapleTA.

Weightings:
Weekly Tests cumulatively 10%, Lab Tests 2 x 15%, Assignment 10%, Final 50%

Assumed knowledge: Students will be expected to have achieved a combined HSC mark in Mathematics Extension 1 and 2 over 175.
- from link above

A lot of the course is spent on filling gaps and relearning stuff from high school, as well as introducing a lot of concepts which were taken for granted but were intuitively true anyway. This course will probably begin to get easier for incoming students with the introduction of vectors to X2 in high school - perhaps causing a few to switch off, which is not something that is recommended. The new content came with the varying applications of such 'gap-filling' theorems and content post-week 6-8 - which was a bit disappointing because I really wanted to learn new stuff after going into uni. However, it was well-taught and interesting, thus warranting its 3/5 rating

Lectures: 2 x 2hr, 1 x 1hr
Tutorials: 1 x 1hr

1/5

Yes

Prof NJ Wildberger, Prof WK Schief

Course pack was available for $50 from the bookshop, but the same pack is made available through Moodle online.

3/5

Used the course pack and lecture slides. For the first few weeks, these will be quite redundant as the course does skim over a lot of high-school content in the early parts of the course, or fills in gaps that we took for granted in high school. Good for revising for finals however - definitely would recommend using the online version

T1 2020

Haven't got marks yet, but will add depending on if I remember or not

Combined mark of 175 in HSC Maths Ex1 and Ex2.

Much of the content in the calculus half is revision or expansion on things taught in HSC Maths Ex1 and Ex2. The algebra content is mostly new, and generally brought the most conceptual difficulty to the course and final exam. The harder questions in the final exam make up the bulk of the interest in the course and difficulty overall, but they're so sparse that it's a pretty easy course overall. Past exams and the problems in the course notes are a must - the more of them you do, the better you will go.

2x 2hr Lecture, 2x 1hr Tutorial.

2/5

Yes - screen and voice recorded.

A/Prof. Daniel Chan & Prof. Wolfgang Schief

Course pack sold by school, and a PDF copy of it posted on Moodle after semester started - cheaper to print and bind it at Officeworks or somewhere, but more convenient to just buy yourself, or free if you don't mind an only-digital copy. It contains course notes, past exams with solutions (though I don't think all of them have solutions), and Maple notes. The course notes cover everything in the course to good depth, and can basically replace the lectures (if you don't mind not having concepts explained). About ten past final exams available, and past class tests as well, so lots of practice materials.

4/5

2017 S1

95 HD

4x class tests worth 20% (best 3/4 count), 8% from online tutorials (maple), 8% maple lab exam, 4% maple practice exams, 60% final exam

Combined mark of 175+ in Maths ex1 + ex2. If you did 3 unit maths, consider taking the 1131 variant, unless you did really well in 2u+3u.

Very enjoyable course. It is split into two parts, Linear Algebra and Calculus. Your final mark pretty much entirely depends on the 60% finals. The remaining 40% is pretty much all free marks.

You will have a total of 12 online maple tutorials - one each week. Your best 8 will count to give you 8% of the course marks. These tutorials are very easy and you're allowed to check your answer before submitting it (There's literally a "How did I go" button which you can exploit an infinite number of times). Try and do a tutorial every week to finish all 12, as they can be pretty helpful. However, worst case scenario you can skip 4 weeks of work and still get full marks if you complete 8/12 of them. Make sure you get all 8% of these free marks.

There will be a 4 class tests throughout the semester. They are very short tests - you are given 20 minutes and there are 10 marks in each test. The first test is in like week 5 and the remaining are evenly distributed throughout the rest of the semester. These are very very easy tests and very similar to the past tests that are provided at the very back of your course pack. If you do them all (or even a few), you should be getting 10/10 for every test. Your best 3/4 class tests will be counted. i.e. each of your best 3 tests are worth 6.6666..% to give a total of 20% of the course. Make sure you get all 20% course marks here!

There will be a maple lab test in around week 10. It will test your understanding of the Maple software, which is used to perform many mathematical calculations. Here is a list of literally every possible question that can come - https://www.scribd.com/document/156497903/1131-and-1141-Maple-Exam-Sample-Solutions. They will choose some of these (not all) for your final exam. Make sure you memorise these (it's not hard, very repetitive). I started memorising the night before the test and got full marks, it's a very easy test - don't lose any of the 8% here.

4% of the remaining marks will come from 2 very simple and short maple practice questions (worth 2% each). These two tests will test your understanding of the maple syntax. There are only two questions in each test, and it is done online. You'll need to use the maple software to enter your answers. Each test should only take you like literally 5 mins at max, so don't put this off.

The remaining 60% of the marks is from final exams. These are harder than the normal class tests you do, so don't get complacent. I got all 40% of the course marks above easily, and underestimated the finals. That's why I only got a total of 76. Study very hard for the final exam, do all the past papers you possibly can do, and get an easy HD!

6

2.5/5

Yes

Professor Wolfgang Schief (Calculus), Dr Alina Ostafe (Linear algebra)

Available on moodle upon enrolment

4/5

N/A

2017 Sem 1

76