Instructor: Adam S. Sikora 115 Math Bldg, Email: asikora at buffalo.edu
Office hours: Tu 3:30-4:30, Th 1-2pm, or by appointment.
Class meets: Tu,Th 2:00-3:20, 150 Math
Recitations: Mth 150, Tu 4-4:50 starting Jan 24.
TA: John Nicponski, Office: 140 Math Bldg, Phone: 645-8825, Email: johnnicp at buffalo dot edu
TA's office hours: TBA and Math Help Center, Rm 107/110.
Prerequisite: Math 141.
Text: Lecture Notes
Supplemental text: Mathematical Proofs, A Transition to Advanced Mathematics by Chartrand, Polimeni, and Zhang.
Study Groups: The class will be divided into study groups. Each study group should meet at least once a week to go over homework and prepare for quizzes and tests. You may move to another group if you wish and some shifting of the groups to achieve better balance may occur after the first few weeks.
How to do well in this course: The beginning of the course seems easy. Do not be misled; it is much harder than it looks. It covers the most the abstract mathematics you have ever encountered. It is designed to teach you precision of thinking and writing proofs. This will make it very difficult for some of you. You are expected to understand the material well and to be able to come up with proofs during tests and quizzes. Come to class, take good notes, go over the lectures every night after class, meet with your study group, ask questions on the material you do not understand, do the homework, participate in class and recitation, and get help as soon as you begin to fall behind. The most important thing is to study hard and to know the definitions and theorems. Help is available from me (before or after class; or e-mail for an appointment) and from the TA. You will find it useful to make flash cards for definitions and propositions. You should plan on spending a minimum of 10 hours a week in preparation/homework.
Preliminary Test Schedule: Feb 16, Mar 29, Apr 26.
You are required to know the material in the lectures, the notes (even if not covered in lecture, except as indicated) and in the homework. Only non-graphing, non-programmable calculators are permitted on exams/quizzes. You are expected to attend each test as scheduled, unless you have a documented medical or other valid excuse. IDs will be checked. Contact me before taking an exam if you are seriously ill.
Quizzes: There will be a short quiz in each recitation on the recent material. No makeups will be given, but the 2 lowest marks will be dropped without penalty.
Additionally, there may be some simple quizzes during lectures.
Homework: due in Tu class. No late homework will be accepted. Each homework assignment will consist of a large number of problems, of which only some problems (not specified beforehand) will be graded. You may work jointly on homework with your study group or other members of the class, but you must write up the problems on your own.
Final grade will be based on HW (and in-class quizzes if they are given), 100pts, and the best of

• the best two tests, 100pts each, and recitation quizzes, 100pts, or
  
• three tests, 100pts each.