MATH 127, Section 3 Course News

On this page, I will keep a log of course announcements.

5/16/06

  • Annoucning the reopening of all OWLs for the entire semester at Noon on Tu 16 May; they will be closed at 2AM on W 24 May, i.e. the night of the exam.
  • The final Exam will take place on Tues May 23 1:30-3:30 pm in Boyden Gym.
  • The Review for the final will take place in Marcus 131 Monday May 22 6:15-9:15 pm.
  • The Help Center will be open this Wednesday May 17 as well as next Monday May 22, but not on Thursday or Friday.
  • My Extended Office Hours for the week of May 15-19 are as follows: Wed 11-12 and 2:30-4; Th 11-12:30 and 1:30-2:30. Contrary to an earlier posting, I WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE on Friday. I will also not be available Monday and Tuesday next week.
  • For sample final exams, visit the Exam page of the main 127 site.

    4/24/06

  • [For the week of April 24-28, modified office hours are: Wed 12:00-1:30, Th 9:30-11:00 and 1:30-2:30]
  • For exam 2, if you need LDSS accomodations, e-mail Prof Rudvalis immediately.
  • Exam 2 will take place thursday night April 27, 6:30-8:00 pm in Marcus 131. That's our regular lecture hall, not where we had the exam last time. Don't forget to bring your calculator, your pencil, your one-side-of-a-8.5-by-11-inch-paper-with-your-notes-on-it.

    3/11/06

  • Exam 1 results have been tabluated. The average score was around 11.5/20 I believe. Professor Rudvalis has decided to add 10% to the raw score for each stduent . Thus, if you got 10/20 correct, your score will be recorded as 60%, not 50%. For students who received 95% or 100%, I believe the score will be recorded as 100%. You should soon (in the next few days) be able to see your score when you log in to OWL. The score you see on OWL is your ADJUSTED score.
  • For students who received 19/20 or 20/20, your score will be 105%, 110% respectively, contrary to what I thought earlier! You earned and deserved them.

    3/10/06

  • Notes regarding Exam 1: Was it hot or what? I am putting in a request to Physical Plant to monitor the temperature in Morrill 1 N329, especially since we are currently scheduled to have Exam 2 there as well. The temperature for that room is controlled centrally so I was not able to control the thermostat, but I did what I could with opening the doors...also sorry for having to pack you in like sardines, but since we had 270 seats for 262 students, there was little choice. If possible, I will try to get a larger (and hopefully cooler) room for Exam 2 on April 27.
  • Here are the UNOFFICIAL solutions to the exams. Please Note I am publishing these here solely for your convenience: I did not double-check them, so they may contain errors. The official solutions will be posted to the main page for Math 127 within the next day or two. Soon thereafter you will be able to check your score on OWL. Any problems/questions should be discussed with Professor Rudvalis.

    Blue Test: 1.a, 2.c, 3.a, 4.b, 5.e, 6.b, 7.e, 8.e, 9.e, 10.b, 11.d, 12.c, 13.a, 14.b, 15.d, 16.b, 17.b, 18.a, 19.d, 20.d.

    Red Test: 1.e, 2.d, 3.e, 4.d, 5.b, 6.d, 7.d, 8.a, 9.a, 10.d, 11.c, 12.d, 13.e, 14.d, 15.e, 16.d, 17.d, 18.d, 19.b, 20.b.
  • If you missed the exam, please contact Professor Rudvalis immediately.

    3/7/06

  • Sample Midterm 1 is available, click here (pdf) or here (MS word). The solution key is also available, go to The Exam Page for Math 127.

    3/2/06

  • Three Review Sessions will be given next week.

    Monday March 6th 4-6 pm Marcus 131 (Kevin)

    Tuesday March 7th 530-730 pm Has 20 (Matt)

    Wed March 8th 6-8pm Marcus 131 (Kathryn)

    There will be a calculator review on Tuesday March 7th will be from 730 pm - 9 pm. The lab will be closed on Thursday March 9th ( the day of the exam) AND the lab will close at 7 pm on Wednesday march 8th.

    3/1/06

  • All OWL assignments for Chapters 1 and 2 will reopen on Friday 3 March at 10AM and close at 2 AM on Friday 10 March (meaning a few hours after the exam on Thursday night).

  • EXAM 1 IS NEXT WEEK: Thursday March 9, 6:30-8:00 pm in Morrill1 N329. (For section 1 (Rudvalis) the exam is in Thompson 104, and for section 2 (Gardner) it is in Hasbrouck 20). It will cover everything we did in Chapter 1 as well as 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3.

  • EXAM 1 MAKE-UP Any students wanting/needing to take the makeup the night before MUST send an e-mail to the course chair Prof. Rudvalis at: rudvalis@math.umass.edu no later than 5 PM on Tu 7 March. Your e-mail MUST include the following information: 1) Student name exactly as it appears on SPIRE (i.e. no nicknames) 2) SPIRE ID# 3) Which section the student attends: Sect 1 = Rudvalis, Sect 2 = Gardner, Sect 3 = Hajir. 4) A BRIEF explanation of the reason(s) for requesting the makeup. Only students sending Prof. Rudvalis such an e-mail will be eligible to take the makeup. Prof. Rudvalis will reply by e-mail no earlier than Friday 3 March and no later than Tu 7 March telling you the exact time and place for the makeup.

  • LDSS Accomodations for Exam 1 Any student requiring an LDSS accomodation for MT1 MUST send Prof Rudvalis an e-mail with the following information: 1) Student name exactly as it appears on SPIRE (i.e. no nicknames) 2) SPIRE ID# 3) Which section the student attends: Sect 1 = Rudvalis, Sect 2 = Gardner, Sect 3 = Hajir. 4) the specifics of his/her accomodation and also 5) a local phone number where Prof Rudvalis can call you to discuss the individual logistics for your accomodation. In order for him to have time to make these arrangements this e-mail must be sent to him NO LATER than NOON this Friday 3 March. He will make these calls over the weekend so the best local number is a cellphone (if you have one).

    2/2/06

  • WebCT is now up and running: to catch it, you need to have an OIT account.
  • EXAM DATES ARE IN: Th March 9 6-8 pm, and Th April 27, 6-8pm.

    2/1/06

  • Students who have turned in Course Add forms to me: Beware that it will take a couple of days before we can enter your information into Spire. Thank you for your patience.
  • Within a day or two, an electronic discussion board on WebCT will become available for your use. Students registered for Math 127 Section 3 will be able to log in (go to The WebCT login page for logging in and more information. The Discussion Board is made availabe as a convenient means for students to talk to other students about Math 127. I don't plan to post anything on WebCT, but I invite you to use the discussion board to leave messages for other students, organize study groups, ask each other questions. Please remember to maintain high standards of professionalism and politeness in your language. Abuses of the system will not be tolerated. I will monitor the discussion board once a week, so if you want to send me a message and would like a quick response, please continue to use my e-mail address.
  • OWL is not yet ready to fly. It's possible that it will be ready to spread its wings as early as Thursday. Check back here for an annoucement. I do not yet know when the closing date for the first assignment will be: but since you have to get used to the system, etc. it will probably not be for another ten days or so.
  • Don't let the fact that OWL is still preening its feathers, stop you from trying a few hw problems on your own. See the list of supplementary problems on the schedule. Which brings me to my next point, namely that
  • The schedule also needs to be updated, and will be soon. However, the schedule that is up now is perfectly usable, if you just use the lecture numbers and ignore the dates: in other words, today was the first lecture, so it covered organization and 1.1, the next one will cover 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, then next tues will be 1.3, 1.4,1.5 etc.
  • One of the TAs (you know who you are, Kelli-Ann) has graciously agreed to take notes during class and to scan them so that I can post the lecture notes to the course web site. If you're thinking "DUDE, Now I Can skip lectures with abandon!!" just keep in mind none of the jokes shall be transcribed into the notes. Now, before you even think about sending me or Kelli-Ann any complaints about legibility of the notes, possible errors, the aesthetic quality of the scanning and/or drawings, etc. beware that we are doing this purely out of the goodness of our hearts. It's your responsibility to take your own notes if you want to. If there are any volunteers who are particularly proud of how well they take notes and would like to make photo-copies of their notes for Kelli-Ann to scan, we invite you to step forward.

    The main page for all sections of math 127 is http://www.math.umass.edu/Courses/Math_127/
    That's where you can find the information common to all the sections in the course: homeworks, grading system, exam dates, syllabus, etc.

    The page for my section of math 127 is Math 127 Section 3.