18.100B
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 | 52 |
| Hours/Week | 8.9 (31 responses) |
| Instructors | Tobias Colding (Lecturer), Katie Gravel (UA), Andrew Y. Lin (UA) |
| # of Responses to Course 18 Underground Questions | 12/52 |
Realistic Prerequisites
- Mathematical maturity: some prior proof-writing experience (perhaps via the IAP proofs workshop or another course with a focus on proof-writing) is highly recommended, as the learning curve is quite steep.
- Knowledge of calculus in a single variable is essential (perhaps also calculus in several variables, but this is more of a soft prereq).
Subject Matter
- Theoretical, broad and deep, abstract. Could have been even more abstract, though – tended to focus mainly on the real line rather than higher-dimensional reals or a more general metric space.
- The skills gained (i.e. formulating proofs with a high level of rigor) might be more important than much of the subject matter itself.
Course Staff
- Approachable, very open to questions, and accommodating of extenuating circumstances.
- Both the professor and the TAs were caring and helpful.
Lectures
- Many students learned the most from the problem sets and from the TA’s office hours, rather than from lectures.
- Students tended to use the textbook as a secondary resource when confused about parts of lectures.
- Lectures were engaging and had good examples; the professor addressed all student questions.
Problem Sets
- Challenging, but generally doable.
- Problems tended to be straightforward rather than requiring creativity.
- Lectures generally prepared students well for the psets.
Exams
- Many students found timing to be an issue.
- The problems were on par with the psets difficulty-wise.
- Solving psets and knowing critical facts from lecture was helpful.
- Many students found the exams stressful and discouraging, primarily due to a mismatch of difficulty level with time allotted.
Resources
- Two textbooks (Rudin and TBB); it was nice to have two perspectives on the material.
- Some students found Rudin to be much more useful than class.
- It would’ve been nice to have lecture notes posted.
Grading
- Grade cutoffs were not publicized.
- Students generally felt that grading was fair and consistent.
- “The professor seems to expect most people to get Bs and As.”
Advice to Future Students
- “I think it’s better for them to practice proof-writing before taking this class, or at least have an idea of how to write rigorous proofs. Also, they should ask themselves, ‘Do I really want to learn how real numbers are constructed, and calculus is formed?’’ If yes, then they should take the class.”
- “It is very rigorous! It can be a bit annoying, but it is a necessary challenge.”
Syllabus
Click here for a PDF of this course’s syllabus.