Advice for Math 527

To get good grades

• Make a habit of writing your work in a neat and organized fashion. Sloppiness generates mistakes, particularly when a problem goes on for pages.
• Always write equations. If you just manipulate expressions, you're likely to make mistakes when you plug them back into equations.
• Always do the same thing to both sides of the equation. Don't subtract 2 from the right-hand side but divide by 2 on the left, or integrate the left with respect to x and the right with respect to y.
• Attend lecture and recitation regularly, and try to keep your mind focused on the material.
• If you don't understand something, ask a question.
• Come to office hours. Get some personal attention!

To learn and prepare yourself for life (much of the same!)

• Be careful and organized.
• Train yourself to focus, think hard, and push out distractions.
• Learn to recognize when you're puzzled about something, and then to do something about it. Framing a question is a good start. Be specific.
• Take your humanities classes just as seriously as your science classes. That's where you'll learn to think critically and independently and to express yourself clearly.