18.330
Table of contents
- Course Info
- Realistic Prerequisites
- Subject Matter
- Course Staff
- Lectures
- Problem Sets
- Exams
- Resources
- Grading
- Advice to Future Students
- Syllabus
Course Info
| Class Size | 11 |
| Hours/Week | 9.8 (6 responses) |
| Instructors | David Sanders (Lecturer) |
| # of Responses to Course 18 Underground Questions | 6/11 |
Realistic Prerequisites
- 18.03 highly recommended, along with coding experience, especially in Julia.
- More generally, foundations like 18.02, 18.03, and 18.06.
Subject Matter
- Applied, useful.
- Broad range of numerical methods.
Course Staff
- The professor was very caring and approachable, though a bit disorganized in managing the class.
- Many reported negative experiences with the TA, who was rude and unavailable. For whatever reason, they are not listed on the official subject evaluations.
Lectures
- Students learned a lot from lectures.
- The problem sets built on the lectures. There was a Pluto notebook helpful for visualizing and working on problem sets.
Problem Sets
- Problem sets required lots of creativity.
- “Very challenging but in a fun way.”
- Lectures were great preparation for problem sets.
- Students found it very helpful to work with others in getting unstuck.
Exams
- No exams.
Resources
- The only resources available were lecture slides. Some wished for more extensive and accessible resources.
- There were a few suggested textbooks. Some strongly recommended using one.
Grading
- Students had no idea what the grade distribution was.
- The TA graded the problem sets harshly. Some felt that it was random.
- No rubric was published for problem set grading.
Advice to Future Students
- “The professor is really good”
- “Don’t take any classes with this TA”
Syllabus
Click here for a PDF of this course’s syllabus.