Department of Mathematics Syllabus
This syllabus is advisory only. For details on a particular instructor's syllabus (including books), consult the instructor's course page. For a list of what courses are being taught each quarter, refer to the Courses page.
MAT 135A: Probability
Approved Version #1
Textbook: Probability and Stochastic Processes, 1st Edition by Frederick Solomon; Pearson Publishing; ISBN-13 #978-0137119615; $42.00-78.00 via Amazon Books.
Lecture(s) | Sections | Comments/Topics |
1.5 Lectures | 1.1–1.4 | The Language and Axioms of Probability. |
2.5 Lectures | 2.1–2.4 | Combinatorics. |
3 Lectures | 3.1–3.4 | Conditional Probability and Independence. |
3 Lectures | 4.1-4.3, 4.5, 4.6, and 4.8 | Discrete Random Variables |
3 Lectures | 5.1-5.5 and 5.7 | Continuous Random Variables |
4 Lectures | 8.1-8.4 and 8.6 | Joint Probability Distributions |
5 Lectures | 9.1-9.3 and 9.5 | Variances, Covariances, etc. |
4 Lectures | 10.1-10.4 | The Normal Distribution, CLT, and Law of Large Numbers |
Additional Notes
Optional sections are: 3.3, 4.4, 4.7, 5.8, 8.5, 9.4, and 10.6. The core sections should be doable without additional lectures. One or more optional sections may be covered, depending on the time schedule and instructor’s taste.
Approved Version #2
Textbook: Probability and Random Processes, 3rd Edition by Geoffrey R. Grimmett and David R. Stirzaker; Oxford University Press; ISBN-13 #978-0198572220; $34.00-67.00 via Amazon Books.
Lecture(s) | Sections | Comments/Topics |
Chapter 1 | 1.1-1.5 | Events and their probabilities. |
Chapter 2 | 2.1-2.3 | Random variables and their distributions. |
Chapter 3 | 3.1-3.8 with a little of 3.9 | Discrete random variables. |
Chapter 4 | 4.1-4.8 | Continuous random variables. |
Chapter 5 | 5.7-5.10 | Generating Functions and their applications. |