Hi all,

REVIEW SESSION

I have reserved a room on campus for a review session.  It will be in Wellman room 1 at May 9th (Fri) 3:30-5:30PM.  So, go to lecture, grab a drink at the MU, and don't forget to swing by.  Enter and leave as you please: you don't have to stay the whole time, of course!  PLEASE bring your questions!!  Otherwise, we'll just pick problems out of the book to do.

THE MIDTERM

Show your work. State tests used for convergence/divergence of series and/or sequences by name!  If one test didn't work, don't skip the problem altogether! Try another test! If that fails, try ANOTHER test.

QUIZ SOLUTIONS / REMARKS

Please examine the quiz solutions. They are avaliable at:
http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~ekim/teaching/0708/spring/21C/

I apologize that they are so long-winded.  I wanted to be thorough so that they can make sense when you read them on your own time.  I'm happy to go over them in office hours if you have questions.  I also tried to address common pitfalls: please read the parts that may be applicable to you (and ignore the parts that don't apply to you).  I hope the thoroughness of these files are helpful to you!

IDEAS ON STUDYING FOR THE MIDTERM
People have asked me if there are other practice midterm materials. Well, your book is the best one. If you did every problem in the sections that will be covered on the test, I would be shocked if you got less than an A-.  Of course, by doing the problem, that means you have to give each problem your full effort, then check to make sure that your answer is right, and learn from any mistakes you made.  Of course, nobody has time to do every problem in the book, but do as many as you can!

I don't know what sections of the book are being covered on the test, but I have a hunch that there WILL be some series.  The slight downfall of having the problems as organized in the book is that problems in section 11.4 (for example) are probably all solved using the techniques in 11.4.  On an exam, you will NOT have that luxury.  You will just be given a series.  There is a small section that has assorted series, so try those.

Also, you could flip through the sections and write down the series from different sections of the book on separate index cards.  Then mix them up and try them!

Also, try the series intuition builder, available from my section webpage.  Part of what that worksheet tries to instill in you is knowing when a certain test will NOT work for a certain series.  This idea is just like in 21B.  Once you know HOW an integration technique works, you have to start knowing when to NOT use that technique on certain integrals, right?  You say things to yourself like "oh, that integral, it's definitely not an int-by-parts one!"  You have to do the same thing here! You have to stare at a series and be able to say "This series probably won't work with Ratio Test."

To do well on the midterm, you HAVE TO have that intuition.  You can either try to build that intuition WHILE taking the test, or BEFORE taking the test.

FINALLY, PROF. SAITO'S WEBPAGE

... is at http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~saito/courses/21C.s08/

The site answers to most of your frequently asked questions are there! Asking these questions during section wastes the time we have to learn material. Some typical questions that are answered on the front page include:
1. What material is covered on a particular week's quiz?
2. What is the homework?
3. When is the midterm?
4. When are office hours? May I go to another TA's office hour?
... and more!!  Please PLEASE use the web as a resource to answer the questions that you can answer yourself (course mechanics/policy) so that I can best help answer the questions that you can NOT answer yourself (confusion on the course material).


Sorry for the long e-mail.  See you all Thursday,
Eddie