09.20.05
Everything you need to know to succeed in college-level mathematics, but are afraid to ask
The following excerpt is from the article “Teaching at the University Level” by Steven Zucker of Johns Hopkins University. It appears in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Volume 43, Number 8..
I agree with the sentiment even if it’s a little curt. I think honest statements about expectations help make the inevitable adjustment from high school to college at least understandable.
- You are not in high school anymore! It is absolutely necessary that you
discard high school notions of teaching, learning and working, and replace
them with college level notions. Our goal is not simply to coach you to
reproduce what was said in the classroom.- Expect the material to be routinely covered at a pace that is two to three
times as fast as in high school, and expect to be required to demonstrate
greater mastery of it.- We only have about 40 hours of lecture - that is less than a single work
week - so we cannot afford to cover every detail. Do not expect to be
taught everything in the classroom. It is your responsibility
to learn the material. Most of this learning will take place outside of
the classroom. You should plan on spending two hours outside of the classroom on this material for
every hour we spend in class.- The instructor’s job is not to explain everything in excruciating detail,
but to provide a framework with which to guide you in learning the concepts
and methods that are the material of the course.- Read the textbook before and after the lectures. Read and study the
examples, and work them out, along with some other exercises, as you read the
text.- Ask questions, and work problems.
- The purpose of the course is not to program each of you to respond to
certain problem assignments, but how to think and how to learn within a
certain mathematical context.- Finally …. your professor is there to help you! Ask for his/her
help as soon as you need it.