General Information About the Course

General Information About the Course#

On this page, you will find information about the structure of the course. For the course’s learning objectives and more, please refer to the DTU course base.

DTU Learn#

The course’s DTU Learn module is used for:

  • Assignment submissions

  • Important announcements from course coordinators and TAs

  • Uploaded material durng the course (lecture slides etc.)

  • Past exam sets

Course Structure#

A course week includes the following elements: a Long Day and a Short Day, each containing a lecture and an exercise session with the teaching assistants (TAs) present, and the Short Day concluding with the Weekly Test, lasting one hour. It is important that you participate in all of these activities, as your performance will be tested in the written exam. You should also expect a significant amount of homework.

Schedule for the two teaching days:

  • Long Days, Wednesdays 10:00-17:00

    • Lectyre 10:00-12:00.

    • Self-study 12:30-13:00.

    • Exercise session with TAs present 13.00-16.00.

    • Self-study 16:00-17:00.

  • Short Days, Fridays 13:00-17:00

    • Lecture 13:00-14:00.

    • Self-study 14:00-14:30.

    • Exercise session with TAs present 14.30-16.00.

    • Weekly Test 16:00-17:00.

Teaching#

Weekly Plans#

The weekly plans (or weekly programs) form the backbone of the course. They are a key communication tool from the instructors to you. Weekly plans outline many of the core concepts covered in the week’s curriculum and include references to the syllabus in the textbook, assignments, activities, and discussion topics for self-study and exercise sessions.

Before and After Class#

You will always be able to review in advance which parts of the curriculum will be covered during a course week. Be sure to read the relevant parts of the textbook before the lectures, as this will significantly enhance your learning experience. It is perfectly normal not to fully understand every part of these textbook sections before the lectures, but experience shows that preparation has a tremendous positive impact. Similarly, reviewing the textbook and assignments after the in-class activities greatly deepens your understanding of the material.

Note that the course grants 10 ECTS credits, meaning it is structured for 16 hours of work per week.

Lectures#

The lectures provide, at the descretion of the lecturer, a survey of chosen parts of the course curriculum, present and interpret the material, and prepare students for the exercise sessions. It is important to note that what is covered in lectures does not define the full curriculum of the course; exam questions may include parts of the curriculum that were not explicitly discussed in the lectures.

Long Day#

The Long Day begins with a lecture, followed by an exercise session. Note that the study areas are available from 12:00. The weekly plan includes information and activities for the day, including assignments. Use the self-study time (12:30-13:00) to familiarize yourself with the day’s agenda so you are ready for the subsequent exercise session with the TAs. Here, you and your study group, under the assistance of a team of TAs, will work on the material from the day’s lecture and the exercises in the weekly plan. After the exercise session, you (and your study group) have the hour from 16:00-17:00 to complete the day’s work, e.g., solving any missing exercises or starting on homework.

Short Day#

The Short Day starts with a lecture, followed by time for an exercise session before the Weekly Test, where you are assessed on the fundamental skills of the week’s topics. There will be TAs available to provide academic support. In certain weeks during the semester, the Short Day will be organized around so-called Theme Exercises, which will replace the usual Short Day activities. See more below.

Course Activities#

Theme Exercises#

A couple of times during the semester, the usual in-class activities on a Short Day are replaced by a Theme exercise. The purpose of such a Theme exercise is to provide examples of how concepts and methods from Python programming can be applied in Mathematics 1b and relate the material to engineering applications. All four hours on these Short Days take place in the study area, with no lecture and no Weekly Test.

The Theme exercise will be released on the website and is to be worked through but not submitted. The concepts and methods you learn during the Theme exercise may appear in homework assignments and the exam.

Weekly Tests#

In semester weeks 1-9 on Short Days without Theme exercises, the day ends with a Weekly Test containing questions from the material of the week. Passing a Weekly Test grants you a bonus point that will count towards your grade. Not passing it has no consequence.

  • The half-hour version: The Weekly Test is active during the final half hour of the Short Day, so Friday 16:30-17:00. We call this the half-hour version (or the in-class version). Here you have one attempt to get as many right answers as you can. Only paper-based aids (notes, books) are allowed - use your laptop to access the test link and nothing else.

  • The week version: Most likely you won’t earn your bonus point in the half-hour version, so a week version (or home version) of the test will be open from Friday 18:00 to the following Wednesday 18:00. Here you have an unlimited number of attempts - starting a new attempt resets your week-version score (but not your half-hour-version score).

Both versions and each new attempt in the week version contain the same questions but with “scrambled” numbers each time. A Weekly Test contains 10 questions, and your results from the half-hour version and from the week version will be added together. To earn a bonus point, you must reach a total of 8 correct answers.

Your bonus points will be added to your exam score before the grade is computed.

Homework Assignments#

Two homework assignments will be given.

Homework assignments (HW) become available as links on the frontpage, where deadlines can also be found. Your answer to HW assignments must be submitted as .pdf files via Learn (the “Assignments” tab). The assignments are designed to be answered without electronic aids, and it is recommended that you do them by hand (and then scan them to .pdf for digital submission).

All answers in the HW assignments should be justified, and all necessary explanations and reasoning included. The focus should be on correct logical conclusions and mathematical accuracy in formulations. A perfect submission contains all the necessary reasoning, but nothing more.

The Project Period#

During the last four weeks of the course, the project period will take place. This concludes with a project presentation and a short written test. In groups, you will work on a project topic that applies the mathematics you have learned in the Mathematics 1 courses to an engineering problem. More information will be given a few weeks before start.

Materials#

The course materials include: the weekly plans with exercises and other materials on the course website, the textbook, HW assignments, SymPy demos, and more. The curriculum is defined here.

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