[dj_money]

Hey everyone!

Well, I found Math 1A03 (Calculus) to be my easiest course in first year. I think the reason is because a lot of the material covered in the course was a review of my Grade 12 calculus curriculum. The only concept that was new to me was integration, but even that wasn't that "bad". The best aspect of this course was the professor: Dr. Lovric. He is absolutely the best professor! In lectures, he is ALWAYS pausing to make sure that everybody understands the concept he is teaching. He is also extremely approachable after class and during office hours. Also, prior to tests and the exam, he would tell us exactly what concepts to study and what questions to practice. I am not quite sure if Dr. Lovric is teaching in September, but if he is, make sure you register in his section! If you don't get a chance to do so, just attend a few of his lectures and see how he teaches. Also, I had a great TA! She was very helpful in tutorials, and more importantly she was very intelligent! There wasn't a time when she wasn't able to answer any question (unlike some other TAs)!

In terms of the mark breakdown, if I remember correctly, there were 5 tests, out of which the best 4 counted. Each of these four tests were worth 15%. The exam was then worth 40% to give you a grand total of 100%. But, prior to the exam, Dr. Lovric and the other professors devised an alternate method to calculate a student's mark. According to this new method, if a student's exam mark was higher than the average of the best four tests, then the exam would cont for 90% of the student's mark (the average of the four tests would contribute to 10% of the final mark calculation)! So, basically what this meant was that even though a student did terrible on all tests, he/she could still end up with a very high final mark if he/she did very well on the final exam!

Overall, this course was fun and should be relatively easy to do very well (obviously owing to the fact that one puts in the effort)!

[Eva C]

I had Dragos as the professor. He was really funny and i liked his accent. he was really helpful, don't thikn he is teaching this course anymore. Math1a03 was just calculus gr. 12 all over again. I took gr. 12 calc in gr. 11, but it was fine. it didn't go by that fast so i was still able to have time to recall from my memory. The tests were not that hard. just try the practice test and it would give you a good idea of it. I didn't go to tutorials cause my TA. was really boring. So if i had trouble, i just went to went to the help center in hamilton hall. its really not hard at all, jsut practice doing problems every week and then you are good to go. If you did well in highschool calc, you will do fine in this. not a big workload if you don't want it to be.

[kenneth526]

I think Math 1A03 is a good transition course from high school to University for first year students. The workload is relatively light and most of the content in covered in high school calculus.

As stated before, the course's evaluation is 5 tests (only four of which count) and the final exam. Dr. Lovric, who was the course coordinator the year I took it, always posted assignment and practice tests for students to complete on their own (with full solutions posted as well). The tests/exam questions were very similar to the assignment and practice test questions. You won't see trick or ridiculously hard questions as long as you complete the assignment and practice tests. In fact, I personally found the textbook questions harder than the actual test questions.

Also, despite having no webCT shell, I found that Math 1A03 was the most successful course in communicating with students (but that's because Lovric was a great course coordinator).

[missmatch]

Clarification? A 2nd year student told me that math 1A03 and math 1LS3 are similar courses. But what really is the difference, and which is easier?

[kenneth526]

Originally Posted by missmatch

Clarification? A 2nd year student told me that math 1A03 and math 1LS3 are similar courses. But what really is the difference, and which is easier?

Unfortunately, nobody knows the specifics at the moment. McMaster revamped their first year Science program and Math 1LS3 is a completely new course.

My guess is that 1LS3 is for students who just took Advance Functions in high school, and 1A03 is for students who took both Advanced Functions and Calculus & Vectors.

[KRan]

1A03 this year was broken down differently from last year. The profs set up a website called WebAssign, and we had weekly online quizzes. The website also had practice problems with solutions and tutorial questions that taught you the material step by step.

Course Assessment:
Diagnostic tests: 2%
WebAssign quizzes: 10%
Project: 3%
Midterms: 20% each
Final: 45%

If your exam mark was higher than your mark with the breakdown above, the exam counted for 100% of your mark.

At the beginning of the semester the quizzes consisted of 3-4 questions and you had 30 minutes to answer them. Partway through, the quizzes were changed so that they were longer (6-7 questions) and harder, but there was no time limit.

The project was taken from an application section of the textbook. There were 4 options, and if you did two projects, then the highest mark was used, and you received an extra 1% on your final grade.


I have a sort of neutral opinion about this course. Parts were easy, since it was mostly review from Grade 12, but I had trouble with integrals and got really frustrated. Since I'm in Kin, I complained most of the semester about taking it, since I didn't have to, but by the end I realized that I hadn't really minded it.

I had Dr. Haskell. She was the only prof (out of 3) who didn't post her notes on WebCT, but she was very enthusiastic and you tell that she really loves math. My roommate had Dr. Marikova, and thought she was awful. Her notes were written in broken English and hard to understand, and my roommate ended up teaching herself most of the course out of the textbook.

Dr. Haskell ran the course website, where she listed practice questions for every section and posted practice midterms that were very similar to the actual midterms. There weren't solutions posted, so you had to go to the (very helpful) review sessions run by the TAs the night before the midterms to check your answers.

[Nino]

The course started off okay but once it got to integration, it became terrible. I did not like integration at all to be honest. Don't make the same mistake I did though. I'm in Life Science and I decided to take Math 1A03 over Math 1LS3 which I really regret right now.

[Krusenik]

math 1ls3: if you like wasting money then this is the course for you. You don't learn any real calculus until half way through the course

if you realy hate calculus and just need a calculus credit for other courses then take math 1ls3, otherwise, give math some respect and take the legit respectable math course: 1a03.

[fyhope]

I checked the MAster time table and i dont think Dr. Lovric is teaching this year ~

[pat2010]

I have the choice between profs: Lozinski D, Grasselli MD and Mertinez Pedrosa E. What prof would you recommend?

[goodnews.inc]

Originally Posted by pateln68

I have the choice between profs: Lozinski D, Grasselli MD and Mertinez Pedrosa E. What prof would you recommend?

I looked up each on www.ratemyprofessors. com (not always reliable information but I gave it a shot). I found that more people posted good stuff about Grasselli. That seemed to seal the deal for me because it's easy to vent about a person when you're angry at them, explaining the bad reviews that some teachers get - but to write something good, you really have to enjoy the person enough to take the extra effort.


I figured that if people are going that step ahead because of their Grasselli experience...he might be the one to go with.

(Plus Pedrosa doesn't fit in my schedule)

(Plus Lozinski would result in my rescheduling a Chem Lab and I wouldn't get most of Wednesday off.)

[~*Sara*~]

For people who were waiting for seats in this course.. it is now listed as AVAILABLE on SOLAR

[Mowicz]

David Lozinski - Taught me Linear Algebra I (1B03) and I thought he was excellent. He is on my top 5 list of math professors in the department. His pacing of material and clear explanations made it easy to learn.

Matheus Grasselli - I've never had him for a course, but I've gone out for a drink with the guy (and a few other profs). He was the only professor to be asked for ID xD Such a young looking guy...good guy though, and I'm sure he's a good prof. I just have no first hand experience.

Eduardo Martinez Pedroza - Taught me Calculus on Manifolds (6B03) and he was stellar. He is my NUMBER ONE choice, for best prof in the department, but not many people have had the pleasure of knowing him yet. He put so much time and effort into his lesson plans/assignments and it was really reflected in his students' success. One word of caution is that he's spanish and has a bit of an accent (which personally, I don't think is an excuse to do badly :p Besides, so does Grasselli). But if you can look past that, then you're sure to find a very caring, helpful prof in Dr. Martinez-Pedroza. I went to his office many times to talk about everything from the course material, to graduate school suggestions, to the 'harsh climate of Canada' (lol). He would always drop everything to help, and that makes him awesome in my books.

[mcinside]

Are the tutorials for this class mandatory? Do you have to go to a tutorial that is being taught by your prof? I know it would make sense but does it really matter?

[jhan523]

Originally Posted by mcinside

Are the tutorials for this class mandatory? Do you have to go to a tutorial that is being taught by your prof? I know it would make sense but does it really matter?

Tutorials are taught by a TA. I think it's the same TA for all tutorials. They are not mandatory and you don't have to go to them if you understand all the content already.