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August 7 - Welcome to MAT 261!

In a little over a week classes will begin and you are currently signed up for MAT 261. We will meet at 10:00 A.M. five days a week throughout the semester. That will be plenty of time for us to get to know one another. J I just wanted to write and get you ready for Day 1.

I am Dr. Herman. You can find out a few things about me at my web site - http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/. More importantly, there is a link there to the course website, which is  http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/mat261/. There you will find the syllabus and homework assignments. We will be covering Chapters 12-16 in Stewart’s Calculus book. If you do not have the text already, make sure you get it as soon as possible. If you do have it, start working on Chapter 12 and go back and freshen up on anything in which you are rusty.

This is the culmination of three semesters of calculus. We will be redoing what you have learned earlier for higher dimensional functions. We will end up studying some of the most important results of calculus – the generalization of the Fundamental theorem of Calculus.

If you are going to be successful in the course, you need to begin by hitting the ground running! You need to read ahead and keep up with assignments. You read the text to get a broad idea of what each section/chapter is about. You read with pencil in hand. Work out problems. Do problems that are not assigned. Brush up on your algebra, trig, and calculus skills. Go over your notes after class. Sometimes it helps to rewrite them. Do not work in a vacuum. Get to know several classmates. Know where Dr. Herman’s Office is – OS 2007J. You should plan to visit regularly. There are many other things to consider to be successful. For example, see http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/divansic/07fall/309tips.html as another take on what you should be doing. Remember, this class is five days a week and you should plan to put in at least another 10 hrs a week into this class. [Note – If you are taking a 15 hr load, then you should be putting a total of 45 hrs or more into your school work. This does not count driving, chatting with others while your book is open. This is a full time job, so you need to limit the time you are working off campus to less than 20 hrs a week, otherwise there will be something that you will not give your best to.]

Well, if you made it this far in your reading, then your first assignment is to send me an email and tell me something about yourself. It is good to get the communication started now. I hope you have a great semester and I will see you in OS 2004 next Wednesday   at 10:00!

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