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This page gives various advice and answers to questions I've either asked or answered at some point in my career. There is no particular pattern here.

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Office Hours
  • Office hours are a time that I set aside for students to come to my office. Unless otherwise specified I will be either in or near my office during my office hours.
  • I am often in my office at other times as well, but there is no guarantee and my schedule changes from week to week. If my office door is open, I'm available for consultation.
  • You should generally come to my office with questions. The purpose is not to teach the material (that is what class is for), but rather to help you refine your understanding.
  • You should also plan on having at least 10-30 minutes available (depending on the class). This is because I will usually not give you the answer to your questions, but rather guide you to figuring it out. This helps you learn.
  • My office hours are listed outside my door as well as on the syllabus of any class I'm currently teaching. I also keep my availability online so that you can see up-to-date availability each week. See your syllabus for the website.
Answered originally in 2014, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
You assign way too much homework!
  • Part of college is learning how to learn. Ideally you should be able to read the textbook and determine which problems you should do and which problems you can skip. Everyone is at a different stage of this process, so I tend to air on the safer side and assign many problems.
  • Try saving some of the problems for studying later: a good approach is to make sure you can do every type of problem, but save some for later. Ideally you could do roughly a third while learning, a third while studying for the test, and a third while studying for the final exam.
  • Usually I do not collect homework (although this depends on the class), be careful not to get behind. It's better to do 10% of the assignment than to do none of it.
Answered originally in 2014, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
How to read a math textbook
  • Reading a mathematics textbook is very different from reading most other texts.
  • A section in a math textbook typically consists of three parts, all of which are mixed together with each other:
    • Some prose explaining the general idea.
    • A boxed or colored area giving the most important fact(s)
    • An example illustrating how to use what's in the box
  • Here is how I suggest reading a math textbook:
    1. Read the prose and try to figure out what it's saying.
    2. Read the boxed or colored fact(s) and try to relate them back to the prose in (1)
    3. Cover up the solution to the example and try to solve it on your own.
    4. Uncover the solution and compare their solution to yours.
Answered originally in 2014, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
Letters of Recommendation
  • A recommendation letter is a letter that describes how I know you and my impression of your abilities and potential.
  • Generally speaking you should expect about a 2-week turnaround from when you ask me until I submit your letter. This will allow me to process and write a quality letter.
  • For students in classes, a rule of thumb is:
    • If you have an A, I can write a strong academic letter.
    • If you have a B, I can write a positive academic letter. (If you have a better reference you should probably find somebody else, though.)
    • If you have a C or below, it is unlikely I'll write a letter for you.
  • Be aware that I might ask you to form a draft of the letter, and then I'll take ideas from it to use in the letter I ultimately write. You have only a few professors to remember; I have many students to remember.
Answered originally in 2014, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
What does research with you look like?
  • There isn't just one particular thing I do research in: from my research page you can see that I have done many things. I even enjoy learning new things if you want to do research in something I'm unfamiliar with.
  • My approach to student research can be outlined as follows:
    • I can provide guidance on background material and future directions.
    • You do the research on your own (What this looks like depends on the field and problem).
    • In weekly meetings you keep me updated on your research while I help refine your understanding, approach, and provide direction.
Answered originally in 2014, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
What's my grade?
  • I never know what to say here. Most of the courses I teach are college math courses, so I typically assume you know how to do simple algebra. In reality though, if you learn the material the grade will take care of itself. So focus on learning, show me that you know it, and you'll be fine.
Answered originally in 2015, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
Can you put me in your course?
  • Short Answer: No
  • Long Answer: There are two cases that I typically hear about. If the class is full, then it's full and I can't help you - add yourself to the waitlist. If you don't have the prerequisites and want to take the course anyway then you're free to try and convince me you're ready to take the course. Some courses have prerequisites because of the nature of the material, others have prerequisites that are more about establishing the mathematical maturity required for the course. As a rule of thumb I prefer to let people that want to succeed, do so. So if you're a good student I'll almost always say "yes" to prerequisite issues because I'll trust you to learn what you need to learn to be ready. If you've struggled in some of your previous classes, what are you thinking trying to skip ahead?!
Answered originally in 2015, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
What pronouns do you use?
  • I use masculine pronouns: he, him, his, etc
Answered originally in 2015, revisited again in 2017 to verify the relevance
How do you read upside down?
  • Years of experience as a professor and tutor have given me practice reading (and sometimes writing) upside down. Actually it's fairly natural to read upside down now, but what is not natural is to read sideways. So when we're looking at something you've written, hold it straight in front of you and I can read it just find. If you slant it to try to make it so both of us can read it, neither of us can do so effectively.
Answered originally in 2016, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
How long have you been growing your hair?
  • I shaved it off in 2008 and haven't cut it once since then. I had long hair before then, but cut it off for a variety of reasons. Most notably are the fact that (1) I had my toughest semester of graduate school planned, and estimated I could save 7 minutes per day by not having hair. Also (2) is that I wrote a model for the growth rate of hair using differential equations. I then tested it on my hair my measuring it every 2 weeks for 6 months to determine the calibration parameters. I periodically measured it again, and over the next 6 years the model was never more than 7% off. In particular it predicted an equilibrium length of about 28-30 inches.
Answered originally in 2016, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
On some of your test solutions you have an r value, what does that mean?
  • On the charts that display student performance, I sometimes also computer the r-value. This is the correlation between the scores on that question and either the test grades, or the current course grades (it depends).
Answered originally in 2016, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
Why don't you collect homework?
  • In many classes I do not collect homework because I want you to learn how to learn, and not use homework as a crutch. Throughout the course you should be asking yourself "Do I understand the material?" and "What do I need to do to learn this material?". Too often people come out of secondary school believing all they need to do to be successful in a course is complete the homework. This is false and I don't want you to have a false sense of security.
Answered originally in 2017, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
Should I take notes during class?
  • If it helps you, then yes. But if you haven't ever tried not taking notes, I encourage you to try it. I personally cannot take notes and learn simultaneously, so when I was in college I discovered that I learned a lot more when I didn't take notes. Instead I listened, thought about what the professor was saying, and tried to think about what she/he was going to do next. This is active learning. You should try it.
Answered originally in 2017, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
How do you have so much energy?
  • It depends on the course, really. I am very excitable and I teach best when I enjoy teaching. I enjoy teaching when the students enjoy learning and perform well. So if you've seen me with a lot of energy, it's probably because I think you're enjoying the class.
Answered originally in 2017, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
What are those boxes on the bottom right of your PowerPoints?
  • That's my difficulty-Importance matrix. It is a 3x3 grid. Left-right is the importance of the skill. (Rightmost is the most important). Up-down is the difficulty to solve the problems (Bottommost is the most difficult)
Answered originally in 2019, revisited again in ?? to verify the relevance
Last updated: 03/02/21