This course will generally consist of two 50-minute lectures and one 50-minute studio section per week, at the times listed on the front page of Canvas. During weeks when we have a midterm exam, we will not have a studio session.
During lectures, we will go over the course material as found in the textbook, work examples, and answer your (hopefully) many questions.
During studio, you will spend time working on problems in groups, going over problems with your teaching assistant, and further discussing course material.
There will be unproctored quizzes given on Fridays during the semester, except during exam weeks or the weeks after our midterm exams. See our calendar for exact dates and material. Typically (but not always!), quizzes will cover the material that was done in the previous week in lecture (that is, what was covered 9 days and 11 days before in lecture). Quizzes also serve as practice for the exams. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Each quiz will open at 5:30 AM Atlanta time on its due date, and it must be completed by 9:00 PM Atlanta time on that date.
We will be using Piazza for online class discussion. The system is designed to get you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TAs, and the instructor. We will check Piazza regularly. Rather than emailing instructors and teaching assistants, please post your questions on Piazza and attend office hours. You can access Piazza through Canvas.
We will use Canvas to post announcements. It is important that you read them!
Homework will be assigned online and will consist of exercises in
WeBWorK (accessed through Canvas). You are responsible for
understanding how to solve all homework exercises for exams and
quizzes. Homework assignments will generally be due
at 11:59 PM on Tuesdays. During the first week of
class (Jan. 10-14), there is an ungraded practice "Warmup"
assignment on WeBWorK designed to get students accustomed to working
with the system.
The two lowest assignment scores
will be dropped. No late homework will be accepted —
no exceptions. Each homework assignment counts the same amount
toward your grade. Sometimes, multiple homework assignments will be
due the same week.
Note that the quiz may sometimes relate closely to the homework that was due the very same week.
If you get a funny error message when clicking the WeBWorK tab in Canvas, try closing the window and trying again. Like many other Georgia Tech websites, the authentication procedure sometimes requires two attempts to login. Other permission denied errors may be solved by deleting your browsers' cookies for the gatech.edu domain.
There are three midterm examinations during the semester on select Wednesdays from 8:00-9:15 PM Atlanta time. See the calendar for exam dates and the syllabus for details.
Absences from quizzes and midterms are generally excused only for Georgia Tech official business, religious holidays, serious illness, and the like. Absences for religious holidays and university travel should be discussed with your instructor by Wednesday, January 19. We reserve the right to ask for a letter from the Dean of Students to justify an absence. In the event that you miss the midterm for an acceptable reason, you will be able to take a makeup exam on the Monday immediately following the midterm. If this is not possible, then the weight of that midterm will be shifted equally to your remaining exams, including the final exam.
The cumulative final exam will be administered on the date and time specially set for Math 1553 by the Institute, namely, on Tuesday, May 3, from 6:00 – 8:50 PM.
Your numerical grades on homework assignments, quizzes, and exams
will be posted throughout the semester on Canvas. When receiving a
graded quiz or exam, check to be sure it matches the grade
posted on Canvas.
The grading breakdown is as follows.
If you score higher on your final exam than on one of the midterms, then your final exam will count for 32.5% of your grade and your lowest midterm will count for 7.5% of your grade. However, any student found guilty of academic dishonesty of any kind in Math 1553 is ineligible for this policy
CIOS Incentive: If at least 85% of all Math 1553 students complete CIOS evaluations by April 25 at 1:00 PM (Atlanta time), we will drop the 2 lowest quiz grades rather than just the lowest quiz grade.
Final letter grades will be calculated as follows:
After all grades are in and all overall percentage scores for students have been computed, grades are assigned. The standard cutoffs are as follows.
A: [90%–100%], B: [80%–90%), C: [70%–80%), D: [60%–70%), F: [0%–60%)
So, to guarantee an A, get 90% or better overall. (90 means 90, not 89.9) To guarantee at least a B grade, get 80% or better overall, etc. These cutoffs might be adjusted, but only in the downward direction (to make letter grades higher).Progress report grades will be assigned by February 21 at 12:00 PM. A satisfactory grade will be assigned to all students who tentatively have a C or higher as determined by their instructor.
There is no extra credit.
Students are expected to fully adhere to Georgia Tech's honor code.