Office: ST1, room 261
Phone: 703 993 1478 (voice); 703 993 1491 (fax)
email: dwalnut@gmu.edu
Course web page: http://math.gmu.edu/~dwalnut/teach/Math203/203sm05.html Access is also available through the Math Department's homepage
Office hours: MW 2:00-3:00pm and by appointment.
Text D. Lay, Linear Algebra and its Applications. (third edition)
Topics: The course will cover portions of Chapters 1-6 in the text. Precise sections covered are indicated in the homework exercises.
This is a summer course in which we must cover an entire semester's worth of material in about five weeks. Therefore, the pace of this course is extremely fast. If you fall behind at any point in the course, you will very quickly find yourself in serious trouble. Therefore, do your best to stay caught up with the material. You should expect to work at least 10 hours per week outside of class in order to master this material in this course.
The last day to drop this course without receiving an F is Friday, May 27. You will have your first exam by that date. This grade should be an indicator of how well you might expect do in the course. Use it to decide whether to stay or drop. If you are undecided about what to do you should talk with me first.
The course web page contains announcements and useful information for students in this course. Solutions to exams, and this syllabus will be made available in downloadable form. You are responsible for checking the web page from time to time so that you will not miss important information.
Homework. Included with this syllabus is a list of homework exercises for the course. While homework will not count explicitly in your final grade, it is vitally important that you do the homework exercises for a given section immediately after that section has been covered in lecture. The assigned problems are representative of the exam questions.
Midterm Exams. A total of 4 exams will be given during this course. Exams will be given on Thursday, May 26, Thursday, June 2, Thursday, June 9, and Thursday, June 16 during the first hour of class. Your lowest exam score will be dropped. Consequently, no makeup exams will be given under any circumstances whatsoever. Your exam average will count for 2/3 of your final grade.
Final Exam. There will be a cumulative final exam given on Thursday, June 23, 10:30am-1:15pm in the same room where we have class. The final exam will count for 1/3 of your final grade.
The grading scale below is based on your correctly rounded semester average. There will be no curve.
A+: 99 +; A: 92-98; A-: 90-91;
B+: 88-89; B: 82-87; B-: 80-81;
C+: 78-79; C: 72-77; C-: 70-71;
D: 60-69;
F: 0-59.