Friday November 13, 2009, 3:57pm
1.  Grading policy:
    Homework grades will be based on 2 problems out all that you submit.  I will chose these at random before the assignment is turned in.  I tend to choose problems that will be relevant in the future.  Check posted solutions for details and come to office hours if you have questions. 
    Tests:  On an exam, be as explicit as possible.  Assume I know nothing about the material.  If you are using a theorem or a definition, make it clear that you know the statement and the axioms involved. 
    Regrading and discussion:  I am open and willing to discuss regrading/ questions about policy.  When I grade, I create a rubric before I begin.  I base my evaluations on this rubric.  I reserve the right to deviate from this rubric (only to help create understanding and foster growth for individual students and the group as a whole).  Upon request, students can see this rubric and cross check my solutions with their grades.  I take responsibility for any mistakes that I make.

2.  Each of you has your graded work.  It is now your responsibility to make sure that your statistics are accounted for on MyUCDavis.  If there is a mistake contact me ASAP and we will work through it. 

Monday November 9, 2009, 3:50am. 
1.  I just finished grading your work.  Take a look at the solutions posted below and make sure to check that your all the scores on MyUCDavis are accurate.


Wednesday November 4, 2009, 5:49pm
1a.  Due to the generosity and hard work of our colleagues, solutions for assignment 2 and 3 are posted.  Brian Alger and Ricky Kwok both emailed me pdf forms of their assignment and Kristen Freeman emailed a TeX document.  I posted both forms.  I feel it is very helpful to see Tex source code.  Thank you to these mathematicians. 
1b.  Know that these students work exceedingly hard to produce the work that we see posted.  They spend hours of their time to foster their understanding and many more hours making it pretty.  Lets congradulate them for their effort and use this as an example to emulate in our own lives.  Every single one of us has this same ability.  Regardless, its a good thing to let our contemporaries provide guidance and support each other on our paths.
1c.  A question I love to ask myself when I am good at a thing (or even when I am not): can I help others achieve mastery in their lives?  It is one thing to be good at a subject but entirely different to be a motivational and inspirational team member.  I learn this every day!

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 11:21 am
1.  Homework solutions for Hw1, Hw4 and Hw 5 are posted.  For those of you who are willing (both Tex and hand written), please send me a copy of your hw two and three solutions and I will post a selection ASAP.

2.   Our test is this week on Friday.  It is my experience that tests are helpful in the following ways
        a.  they help motivate students to internalize the material
        b.  give the instructor an idea of how well the class is doing
        c.  they give a very real sense of accomplishment and achievement by showing progress
That being said, they can also be nerve racking. 
A real strength that I see in our class is the commitment to hard work.  Also I see intelligence and creative thinking.  Lets make sure that our psychological preparations maximizes our chance to succeed.  Here is a bit on the psychology of problem solving.  Note that tests in math are intense bouts illustrating trained problems solving techniques and tools to help solve problems.  The more fluid we become in these techniques the better we can achieve our goals in course work.  It seems to me that this is directly applicable to research.  Also please consider seriously reading more abour heuristics. 

3.  Here is the list of Thms for Midterm1.  We covered 1.67, 1.68, 2.3, 2.4, the beginnings of 1.52 and the beginning of 2.12 (Arzela Ascoli) in the review session on Sunday.  Some major strategies we used to study were
i.  repetition (say the antecedents and consequents 10 times during a particular bout of study for a given theorem)
ii.  Analogy (draw analogies between the theorem we were studying and other theorems we know
  (here we asked ourselves what is the same about the two theorem and what is different
  ex:  how is Arzela Ascoli like the Hiene Borel and how is it different
iii.  Use examples: in each theorem we worked to come up with examples to illustrate antecedents as well as consequents.  We also worked to come up with non-examples for these assumptions
  ex:  what is an example of an equicontinuous family of functions?  what is an example of a family of functions that is not equicontinuous?
  ex:  what is an example of a uniformly continuous function?  What is an example of a non uniformly continuous function?


Friday October 30, 2009, 12:39pm
    1.  Happy Halloween Tomorrow
    2.  From now on I will be using students solutions to post on-line.  I will continue to provide leadership in section and office hours and post preliminary solutions.  I think it is a great thing to give credit to your hard work and let others learn from the experience.  Please email me if you do not want your solutions posted.
  Remark:  I am much more likely to choose work that are typed in Latex.  There are many good solutions that are hand written and it is a shame that I have this proclivity.  Please consider the following:  If you are solving a probelm and feel confident and proud of your solution, TeX it up (the problem you like the most... not necessarily the whole assignment).
    3.  Next week on Friday, we have a midterm exam in this class.  I am composing an email now for our first review session on Sunday afternoon from 4-7pm (I am willing to stay a later if you all feel that it is productive).  Please take a look at that email and respond accordingly.  Here is the attachment I added to that email:  Thms for Midterm1

Monday October 27, 2009, 2:21pm
    1.  Home grades for homeworks 1, 2 and 3 are now posted. 
    2.  Tomorrow morning we will meet at 9am in our normal location.  Lets wish our colleagues luck in their Algebra Midterm exam tomorrow. 
    3.  Next week on Friday, we have a midterm exam in this class.  My experience shows that the following reviews might be helpful
          i.  Definition review
          ii.  Theorem statement reviews and overviews of proofs
          iii.  Homework problems review and overviews of solutions   
          iv.  Practice problems and solution speed work
    I am willing to help with the last three of these reviews sessions and coordinate times over the next 12 days to achieve mastery of this material.  We will speak tomorrow at section.  Here are my thoughts: 
    Sunday November 1 (afternoon):  a review of theorems covered and outline of proofs this coming Sunday (2 hours).  To prepare for this, students will need to know the definitions of terminology used in the theorem statements.  Also, if students want to prepare one theorem each this would greatly help your study.  I will discuss more about this tomorrow in section.
  Tuesday November 3 (morning):  An hour + review of problems from homework and outline of the solutions. 
  Either Wednesday or Thursday:  a section of problem solving that includes problems from past 201A midterms and material covered up until now.
    Please email me to let me know if you are interested in attending any/all of these (if I get emails, then I will plan to run these sessions, otherwise, I will not). 

Tuesday October 20, 2009, 10:28am
    1.  The permissions from last weeks homeworks are changed.  Enjoy.
    2.  Here are lists of Major Theorems in Analysis and theorems about Sequences and Series in condensed form.  They are meant to be helpful in studying and referencing.  Enjoy.

Friday October 16, 2009 5:04pm:
1.  Plausible solutions to Homework 3 are posted.  For more about what this means, see here.
2.  Homework 4 is listed below.  Hints will be provided as soon as I solve them for myself.

Tuesday October 13, 2009, 10:54am:
1.  For more about measure theory and related topics, see Gerald Follands book Real Analysis.  Also, the book Measure Theory is an incredibly helpful resource.  I am quite impressed with the work that went into this book.  Some classical texts in Analysis are Principles of Mathematical Analysis and Real and Complex Analysis by Walter Rudin.  These are all expensive books and UCDavis Library has copies (I am currently borrowing the copies from Shield's Library.  I will be happy to share these resources).