Prof. Paul Gunnells, LGRT 1115L, 545–6009, gunnells at math dot umass dot edu. The best way to contact me is by email. Please don’t leave a message on my office phone; I almost never listen to messages there.
Introduction to Enumerative and Analytic Combinatorics, Second Edition by Miklos Bona. ISBN: 9781482249095. Table of contents.
Please note that this is the second edition of this book. It contains more material than the first edition, and the first edition will not be suitable.
The textbook is very readable; the author has put a lot of work into his exposition, and there are many examples given in detail. There is a lot of material in the textbook, way more than we can cover in one semester. We will try to cover all of the Methods and Topics sections, with possibly some extra material.
It will be presumed that you are reading the relevant sections of the textbook outside of class.
The grading for the course will be as follows. There will be a final exam worth 30%, and two exams during the semester each worth 25%. The remaining 20% will be based on homework exercises.
After being determined by the above algorithm, the total score will be truncated down to the nearest integer less than or equal to the total score. (Note that truncation is not the same as rounding. For example, a score of 89.75 will be truncated to 89, not rounded to 90. This is standard policy in courses offered in the Math and Stat Department.) The letter grade will then be determined by the following scale:
| A | A– | B+ | B | B– | C+ | C | C– | D+ | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 87 | 83 | 79 | 75 | 71 | 67 | 63 | 59 | 55 | <55 |
The final will be cumulative, with some emphasis placed on topics covered after the midterm exam. The date and time will be announced by the University. The final will only be given during the scheduled time.
There will be two midterm exams, given in the evening.
Thursday, Feb 27, 7–9 pm, in GSMN 0151.
Thursday, Apr 2, 7–9 pm, in GSMN 0151.
UPDATE: Because of COVID-19 we will now give the second exam as a takehome exam, starting on Apr 10.
These exam dates will not conflict with any religious observances, as determined by the
2020 NYC Alternate Side Parking Rules Suspension Calendar,
which is the most complete list of holidays I know.
The exam times are 2 hours to take some of the pressure off. It is not expected that you will need the full 2 hours to complete them.
This is not a programming course, and assignments will not require coding. However many computations for examples and problems will benefit from using a computer; in fact I plan to demonstrate such computations in class as much as I can. For an overview of software you might find useful, see here.
Problem sets will be assigned on the main course page and will be collected in-class. Late problem sets will not be accepted for any reason. At the end of the term, a few problem set grades will be dropped, so missing one or two problem set submissions shouldn’t affect your grade.
Only selected problems (randomly chosen by me) will be graded. The book contains some exercises with complete solutions for self-study. These will be part of the homework, but they will not be graded.
I encourage you to form study groups and to work on the problem sets together. In fact you will learn a lot more about the material through discussing it with your fellow students. However, there are a few guidelines to follow:
Remember that ultimately you’ll be taking exams by yourself, so if you choose to work with others, make sure that you’re understanding what’s going on.
If you do work with other students, you are responsible for writing up the problems yourself in your own words. In other words, your solution must be sunmitted separately; there are no group homework submissions allowed.
If you do work with your students on a problem set, you must indicate this on the first page of your HW submission. Please include the names of the students you worked with. This alerts the grader that some of your solutions may closely resemble other students and that there is nothing amiss.
Successful completion of the problem sets is essential to help you monitor your progress in the course. The homework problems will be very similar to problems that appear on exams. Please don’t postpone working on the problems; try to take a look at them shortly after the material is covered in class.
I try to answer as many questions as possible during lecture. If you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask. Chances are other students also have the same question. I also usually stick around a few minutes after class to answer quick questions (such as questions about parts of the lecture, a homework problem you’ve tried, etc.). Most students find this to be a good way to clear up confusion.
Outside of class, the best way to get help is through my office hours. Sometimes only a little bit of consultation is all that’s needed to deal with difficulties. One thing to remember is that you will get much more out of office hours if you make a serious effort to do the problem on your own first.
Although I like to get a lot of questions from students, it is not possible to answer mathematical questions by email. Please don’t be offended if you ask me a mathematical question by email and I don’t respond. I’ve found in the past that trying to discuss mathematics by email rarely helps anyone, and usually only causes more confusion. It’s much more effective to ask me such questions during class or office hours.