Math 5010-1, University of Utah
Summer 2015
Introductory Probability: Useful Information and General Warnings

Below you can find some caveats regarding this course. The unfriendly tone of this webpage is not meant to dissuade you from taking this course. In fact, this course tends to have a very frank and friendly environment. Also, many of you are likely to find this course the intellectual highlight of your academic careers thus far.

Warning The harsh tone is intended to drive home the idea that this really is a demanding course, and requires a good background, as well as strong interest in learning probability. In direct terms, there is no "getting by" in this course.

Warning For many of you, Math 5010 is your first 5000-level math course. You would do well to know that Math 5010 is not a natural continuation of our 3000-level probability/statistics courses. Good performance in Math 5010 requires, at the very least, a solid background in elementary college-level mathematics; i.e., a year of calculus. Math 5010 does not have a calculus primer section. If you have not had a chance to think about your old calculus material, then it is up to you to catch up to a level appropriate to Math 5010.

Warning Approximately two-thirds of the problems in Math 5010 are in the "problem solving" category. Nearly one-third fits in the "concepts and theory" category. This means that unless you can solve a reasonable portion of problems in both categories, you will not receive an "A" in this course. ["Concepts and Theory" does not mean memorizing terms or such things. It means being able to think about, and work with, theoretical problems.]



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