Schedule Advice

An appropriate work strategy for this course is critical to success for every student.  But, for a variety of reasons, not every student in this course has incorporated (or even realized) all of the valuable components of the ideal strategy. 

The ideas below should help you think through the formation of a work strategy that will work best for you.  Of course, once formed, it remains that you must supply all of the motivation to keep up with it!

  1. Lectures
    1. Be on time, and be sure to sit in a location where you can comfortably see the board and easily hear the lecturer.
    2. Do not have your email, facebook, youtube, or other distractions open during the lecture.  Note, these are distracting also to the students behind you!
    3. Have either an electronic or paper copy of the lecture notes, and annotate with your own notes throughout the lecture.  Use colored pens to distinguish your notes.
    4. If you are confused by some portion of the lecture, and if lecture recordings are being made, make a note of the time at the corresponding location on the lecture notes.  This will allow you to easily locate the relevant portion of the video when you return at a later time to study this portion of the notes.
    5. Review the lecture recordings for every class meeting.  You might spend some time with other resources first, to try to resolve some prerequisite issues that might have been holding you back during class.  When you are ready, click through to the parts of the lecture that you found most confusing. 
  2. Reading
    1. Before each lecture, skim over the appropriate pages of the lecture notes, and the corresponding sections of the book. 
    2. After the lecture, re-read the above thoroughly.  Remember, you are responsible for all of the material in the book and in the notes (unless explicitly stated otherwise), but due to time constraints not all will be covered in class.
  3. Homework
    1. After each lecture and the subsequent reading, you should try to complete as many of the homework exercises from that day as you can, and make as much progress as you can on the others, to avoid leaving too many exercises to be done just before the due date. 
    2. Note the Help Room hours and course office hours, and plan your schedule to allow you opportunities to go to ask questions specifically about exercises that you could not complete on your own.
    3. Go to the Help Room or course office hours to get help on the questions from the previous day, complete all of those exercises, and submit that assignment. 
    4. Try also to go to the Help Room or office hours with general questions on the material that might have come up in your mind as a result of the homework exercises.
    5. Plan your schedule also to allow you to come to instructor office hours with questions, especially general questions for which you might get the best help from the instructors.  Remember you are welcome at the office hours of all instructors/TAs for the course. 
  4. Daily studying
    1. Identify important topics covered that day, relevant definitions, theorems, techniques, and applications.
    2. Identify topics you are having trouble with.  Identify if those topics make use of earlier topics you are continuing to have trouble with.
    3. Spend focused time reading the presentation of that material in the lecture notes and in the book.
    4. Consider reviewing relevant portions of the lecture recordings, if such recordings are being made.  (Work back-and-forth between the written materials and the lecture recordings -- watching the recordings can help you understand things in the written materials, and likewise understanding the written material can help you understand further in the recordings.)
    5. Maintain a list of questions to ask in instructor office hours, or the help room, that get specifically to what you are having trouble with.  Ask these questions in office hours or the Help Room.  Cross off questions when resolved, or consider rephrasing if your concerns are not thoroughly satisfied.
  5. Big-picture studying
    1. Identify how current topics from class relate to, and/or make use of, earlier topics from the course.
    2. Think about why topics have been presented in this order.
    3. Try to anticipate possible generalizations or applications of recent topics.
    4. Discuss the above with a study group of other students.
  6. Organization
    1. Maintain a documented daily schedule that allows you to fit in the above items, along with the rest of your obligations.
    2. Adjust your daily schedule as you gain experience on how best to allocate time to these items.
    3. Consider how your schedule might need to change near an exam date.
    4. Consider how you might make most effective use of the flexibility of time during the weekend.