Math 112 Activity Descriptions

Attendance, Preparation & Participation: (10% of overall grade, 2 points each class period) Class attendance, preparation and participation are an integral part of your learning experience in this course. Class time will often be spent in class discussion, exploration, and collaboration; in order for you to get the most out of those activities, you need to be both present and prepared to participate. On M W F your attendance and participation will be monitored through our use of the i-clicker system. On T TH your attendance and participation will be monitored by your TA.

Pretest: (20 points) The Mathematics Department requires that all Math 112 students take a pretest to demonstrate a solid background in both College Algebra and Trigonometry.

To take the pretest, login to mathonline.byu.edu with your Route Y id and password. Click on "Pretests and Placement Exams", "enroll" in the course, then scroll down to the Math 112 Pretest section. The first link is a Pretest Review (PDF), the second is the actual pretest. While you take the pretest, you will notice at the bottom of the page a “save without submitting” button. Select this after each answer so that if you lose your internet connection, you can come back and finish the pretest later. Select “submit all” when you have completed the entire pretest.

You can take the pretest two times (if necessary) and you need to have taken it by midnight on Thursday, September 8. If you do not score higher than 75% then you should not take Calculus this semester. Feel free to come in to talk to me about what you can do to prepare yourself to take it another semester. Your grade on the pretest will count as 2 online homework assignments.

Online Homework: (15% of your overall grade, 10 points each) The online homework is intended to help you to structure your practice of the procedures and calculations we will be studying. All of the online homework assignments are located at mathonline.byu.edu. Login with your Route Y ID and password, and select your class. The first time you log in, you will need an enrollment key, which is your TA’s last name, in all lowercase letters. Click on a homework assignments to begin. Submit your answers anytime before the assignments close. Assignments typically close at 5:00 am two days after the assignment was given. If you get a problem wrong, you may resubmit repeatedly until you get the correct answer (until the online assignment closes). Your lowest 2 scores will not be figured into your final grade.

Written Homework: (15% of your overall grade, ~50 points each) Each week you will be assigned a problem set as written homework. These problems differ from the online homework in two significant ways: (1) they are often more complex and have multiple correct answers or multiple pathways to the correct answer; (2) you are expected to write out your solutions strategies and to justify your solutions rather than merely providing an answer. The style of these written solutions should be very much like a good textbook example; solutions should contain enough explanation that one of your classmates would be able to easily understand what you have done as well as whey you have done it. Although correct answers are important, they are only worth a portion of the points. Rather, the points on these problems are given according to the degree to which you have provided evidence of an understanding of the underlying concepts required to solve the problems. We will look for evidence of your understanding in your ability to explain and justify your solutions. Your lowest score on a problem set will not be figured into your final grade.