Dear students,

As you may know, the letter grades for all your courses will be announced on January 28, 2019 universitywide. We would like to explain how we assigned your letter grades, in particular, how we determined the threshold for the passing grade DD.

In order for you to understand our reasoning, we should first focus on why you are taking this course in the first place. As stated in our syllabus, “the main goal of this course is to enable the student to comprehend and construct mathematical arguments, as well as, to develop the student’s mathematical maturity by providing basic definitions, facts and necessary tools.” In short, you are taking this course to learn how to read and write mathematical proofs, and to learn fundamental concepts that are used in mathematics. For this reason, a student who passed this course with a minimum grade of DD should fulfill these expectations at a minimum level.

Let us now analyze your exam questions and mark all the questions which we, the instructors, believe should have been done by a student who obtained the passing grade DD. In parantheses, you shall find what the question measures.

• Midterm 1, Q1. (understanding the role of quantifiers)
• Midterm 1, Q2.b. (being able to negate a sentence)
• Midterm 2, Q1. (understanding the concept of the power set and the union)
• Midterm 2, Q3.a. (being able to detect a quantification mistake in a proof)
• Midterm 2, Q4.a. (being able to carry out a direct case-by-case proof)
• Midterm 3, Q2.a. (understanding the concept of the power set)
• Midterm 3, Q3. (understanding the notions of image and inverse image and being able to read the graph of a function)
• Midterm 4, Q1.b. (understanding the notion of the equivalence class)
• Midterm 4, Q1.c. (understanding the notion of the quotient set)
• Midterm 4, Q4. (understanding the notions of maximal, minimal, greatest and least elements)
• Final, Q1.c. (being able to prove a set inclusion)
• Final, Q2.b. (understanding the notion of surjectivity)
• Final, Q4. (being able to carry out an induction)
• Final, Q6. (being able to draw the Hasse diagram of a finite partial order)
• Final, Q7.a. (understanding the notion of contrapositive)
• Final, Q7.d. (understanding the concept of the power set)

Let us also mark the questions from which we believe a DD-student should have gotten some partial credits.

• Midterm 1, Q3.a. (being able to make a truth-table and understanding the meaning of logical equivalence)
• Midterm 2, Q2. (being able to prove a set identity)
• Midterm 3, Q4. (being able to show the bijectivity of a function and finding its inverse)
• Midterm 4, Q1.a. (being able to show that a relation is an equivalence relation)
• Midterm 4, Q2. (being able to carry out an induction)
• Final, Q2.a. (understanding the notion of injectivity)
• Final, Q3. (understanding the notion of surjectivity)
• Final, Q5. (being able to show that a relation is an equivalence relation)
• Final, Q7.c. (being able to show that a relation is reflexive)

Adding the points of these questions up (with the assumption that you obtained reasonable partial credits from the second list) reveals that a DD-student should have collected approximately 100 points out of 200 points, in other words, approximately 50 points out of 100 points. We would like to note that this is not the precise threshold that we have determined for the letter grade DD. We were slightly more flexible.

Considering that the course average was 45 out of 100 among the students who did not get an NA, you may think that expecting 50 out of 100 seems a bit harsh. However, our instructors’ experience in teaching mathematics points to the fact that if a student does not understand these basic notions and does not possess the aforementioned basic mathematical skills, then he or she will most likely fail in most of the upper level mathematics courses. Therefore, as harsh as it may seem, MATH111 Coordination believes that this expectation is not only reasonable but also necessary.

We hope that you enjoyed the course and learned as much as possible.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 27.01.2019 under Uncategorized, Very Important

Dear students,

Your updated grades are now announced on the Student Information System. If you have taken a make-up exam, then your make-up exam grade should have also been updated in the system. As it was pointed out in the previous post, please do not try to bargain for your letter grades.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 22.01.2019 under Very Important

Dear students,

Your final scores are now announced on the Student Information System. The paper review for final exam will be conducted on January 22, 2019, Tuesday in M-214 between 11:00-12:00.

The average grade for the final exam is 28 out of 80 and the overall average grade is 89 out of 200 (among the students who did not get NA.) That said, recall that we are not planning to use a curved grading system for letter grades.

You should know that, as a principle, we shall not answer questions regarding letter grades over e-mail. In person or over e-mail, please do not try to bargain for your letter grades.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 20.01.2019 under Very Important

Dear students,

You can reach the sample solutions for the final exam from here.

Best regards,

Math 111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 15.01.2019 under Uncategorized

Dear Students,

Your exam places for the final exam are now announced on the Student information system.

Kind Regards,

Math 111 Coordination

Posted by math 111 on 14.01.2019 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you know, you have the right to take the make-up exam if you missed an exam and

• have an official report for the day you missed your exam, or,
• had a schedule conflict with another exam that you were supposed to take.

The make-up exam will be held on January 21, 2019, Monday at 13:40 in M-203, Tosun Terzioğlu Auditorium. Those who will take the make-up exam need to

• bring in their medical report to the make-up exam, or,
• bring in a signed letter from the instructor of the exam which conflicted our exam,

to the make-up exam. You have to bring the document explaining your absence (that is, the medical report or the signed letter) directly to the make-up exam on January 21, 13:40. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to take the exam. This means that you cannot hand in your document some other time later. Please be responsible and do not forget to bring in your document.

Let us repeat this important remark in Turkish:

Telafi sınavına girebilmek için, sınav günü sınıfa

• eğer hasta olduğunuz için sınava giremediyseniz, sağlık raporunuzu, veya,
• eğer başka bir sınavınızla çakıştığı için sınava giremediyseniz, bu sınava girdiğinizi belirten ilgili dersin hocası tarafından imzalanmış bir dilekçeyi

getirmeniz gerekiyor. Telafi sınavı için teslim etmeniz gereken ilgili belgeyi sınav saatinde sınıfta bulundurmazsanız, telafi sınavına alınmayacaksınız. Belgeleri daha sonra teslim etme şansınız olmayacaktır.

The contents of the make-up exam is the same as the final exam.

Study well for both the final exam and the make-up exam,

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 11.01.2019 under Very Important

Dear students,

Objections to Midterm 4 grades have been considered and your updated midterm scores are now posted on the SIS. If there is any change in your grade or your NA status, you should be able to see it right now.

As you may know, our final exam will be held on January 15, 2019, Tuesday at 13:30. The exam places will be announced sometime on the weekend. The final exam covers all the topics that are covered in the class during the semester and is out of 80 points. In case it is not clear, the topics are

• 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5
• 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5,
• 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
• 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
• 5.1, 5.3, 7.4,
• 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7

Study well for the final exam since it is the exam with most weight among all your exams,

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 11.01.2019 under Very Important

Dear students,

The NA grades are just announced on the Student Information System. If you received an NA grade, then you shall see the remark “You received an NA grade…” in the system. As it was announced in the syllabus, if you have

• obtained <20 points (out of 120) in the midterms, or,
• obtained <40 points (out of 120) in the midterms and attended <%70 of the classes,

then you must have received an NA grade and will not be able to attend the final exam.

If you

• believe that you received an NA grade due to a miscalculation or a mistake, or,
• received an NA grade and have the right to take a make-up examination*,

then you should immediately send an e-mail to Burak Kaya at burakk@metu.edu.tr with title NA grade correction, otherwise, you will not be able to take the final exam.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

*: The details of the make-up examination shall be announced later this week.

Posted by math 111 on 08.01.2019 under Uncategorized, Very Important

Dear students,

As MATH111 Coordination, we are kindly asking you to fill out the survey at this link. We would like to note that, participating in this survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. The reason we are conducting this survey is that we would like to understand how changing the usual midterm scheme effected students, which may help us in future courses.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 08.01.2019 under Uncategorized, Very Important

Dear students,

As you know, due to the snow holiday and the new year, all sections have missed several lecture hours. Consequently, we had to skip proofs of various important facts from Chapter 6 in class. To make-up for those, Burak Kaya will be holding an additional lecture of two hours on January 11, Friday at 15:00 in M-203, Tosun Terzioğlu Auditorium. Notice that this extra lecture is not a recitation and the purpose of it is to prove several theorems as well as giving more examples on the concept of countability.

On the other hand, there will be a recitation held before the exam as announced in this post. You are strongly suggested to attend both the extra lecture and the recitation.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 08.01.2019 under Uncategorized, Very Important

Dear students,

Your Midterm 4 scores are now announced on the Student Information System. The paper review for Midterm 4 will be conducted according to the following schedule:

• Burak Kaya, January 9, Wednesday, 15:30-17:00,
• Gökhan Benli, January 10, Thursday, 13:00-15:00,
• Gülin Ercan, January 11, Friday, 13:00-15:00,

The room for the paper review will be posted to the office doors of each instructor and is held in the offices unless specified otherwise.

The averages for all four midterms are

• 17.45 for Midterm 1,
• 13.39 for Midterm 2,
• 13.13 for Midterm 3,
• 14.2 for Midterm 4.

While these averages may help you understand how well you rank among your peers, they may not be useful to estimate your letter grade. You should keep in mind that we are not planning to use a curved grading system or the official university catalog for the letter grade assignment.

Study well,

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 08.01.2019 under Uncategorized, Very Important

Dear students,

One of our research assistants, Kübra Dölaslan, volunteered to conduct an additional recitation before the final exam. She will be conducting a recitation on January 14, Monday at 16:00 in M-13. As you may guess, attendance to this recitation is not mandatory, but suggested, especially if you have had troubles in the previous exams.

Kübra said she will be solving both some problems that she picked and the problems that you bring to class. Consequently, in order to save time, she prefers that you decide the questions that you wish to be solved ahead of the recitation hour. She also let me know that she prefers to conduct the recitation in Turkish, unless there are international students, in which case, she will also be lecturing in English.

Study well for the final exam.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 03.01.2019 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

You can reach the sample solutions for the fourth midterm from here.

Best regards,

Math 111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 28.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear Students,

The exam places for midterm 4 are now announced on the Student information system.

Good luck!

Math 111 Coordination,

Posted by math 111 on 24.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you know, our fourth and last midterm will take place on December 27, 2018 at 17:40. The exam places will be announced tomorrow on Monday. The exam will cover

• Chapter 5, Relations,
• Section 7.4, Partially Ordered Sets (up to and not including order homomorphisms), and
• Section 6.2 and Section 6.3, Properties of Natural Numbers and Mathematical Induction

Study well.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 23.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

Your updated midterm scores are now posted on the student information system.

Math 111 Coordination,

Posted by math 111 on 19.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

Your Midterm 3 scores are now announced on the Student Information System. The objections for Midterm 2 will be handled later this week.

The paper review for Midterm 3 will be conducted according to the following schedule:

• Gökhan Benli, December 12, Wednesday, 11:40-13:00,
• Burak Kaya, December 13, Thursday, 13:40-15:00,
• Sergey Finashin, December 12, Wednesday, 15:40-16:40,

The room for the paper review will be posted to the office doors of each instructor and is held in the offices unless specified otherwise.

Study well,

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 11.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

You can reach the sample solutions for the third midterm from this link.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 07.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear Students,

Due to some problems, the Midterm 3 places of some students are changed. Please check your exam place again from the Student information Sysytem.

Also, please inform your friends about this last minute change.

Posted by math 111 on 06.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear Students,

The Exam places for Midterm 3 are now announced on the Student Information System.

Best Regards,

Math 111 Coordination

Posted by math 111 on 04.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you know, our Midterm 3 will be held on December 6, 2018, Thursday at 17:40. Your Midterm 3 exam places will be announced tomorrow on December 4, 2018. The exam includes sets and functions, more specifically, 3.1, 3.2., 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4. Notice that some of this overlaps with the contents of Midterm 2.

Considering that the average of Midterm 2, which is ~13, you are strongly advised to study and digest the concepts related to sets and functions. You should keep in mind that the concepts that you shall learn in MATH111 will be used throughout your whole undergraduate education. Therefore, you should learn these not only to pass the course, but also, to be able to understand the concepts and do well in future courses.

Also, the paper review for Midterm 2 will be conducted according to the following schedule:

• Gökhan Benli, December 5, Wednesday, 11:40-13:00,
• Burak Kaya, December 6, Thursday, 13:40-15:30,
• Gülin Ercan, December 7, Friday, 12:40-14:00,

The room for the paper review will be posted to the office doors of each instructor and is held in the offices unless specified otherwise.

Study well,

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 03.12.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

Your Midterm 2 and updated Midterm 1 results are now announced on the Student Information System.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 29.11.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

You can reach the sample solutions for the second midterm from this link.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 16.11.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you may know, you shall have your second midterm on Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 17:40. The second midterm shall include all topics up to ordered pairs, which were not covered in the first midterm. (More specifically, it includes last two pages of 1.5 involving valid arguments with quantifiers, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 except ordered pairs and cartesian products.)

You can see your exam places through the Student Information System.

Come to intructors’ office hours. Study well.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 13.11.2018 under Very Important

Dear students,

You can see your exam papers

• on Monday, 12 November with Sergey Finashin between 12:40-13:30, in M-231.
• on Tuesday, 13 November with Burak Kaya between 10:40-12:00, in his office M-126.
• on Wednesday, 14 November with Gökhan Benli between 12:40-14:00 in his office M-227.
• on Friday, 16 November with Gökhan Benli between 12:40-13:30 in his office M-227.

Please note that the paper review period is for you to see your mistakes, not for you to object without justification, especially if you have not read the sample solutions.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 09.11.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

The results of Midterm 1 are now announced. You can see your result at the Student Information System.

You will be able to see your exam papers next week. Dates will be announced on the web-page later this week.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 06.11.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you may already know, our second midterm is on November 15 at 17:40. Due to the high volume of exams conducted university-wide during mid-November, it is often experienced that some of these exams overlap.

• If you have one exam whose schedule is conflicting with ours, you are entitled to get one make-up exam.
• If you have two or more exams whose schedule is conflicting with ours, you are entitled to get still one make-up exam. You should try to get another make-up exam for your other class.

Those students, who would like to take a make-up exam due to exam conflict should

• send an e-mail to burakk@metu.edu.tr with title “[MATH 111 Exam Conflict]” explaining the situation. (You should include the code of the course whose exam is conflicting ours.)
• obtain an officially signed document by the instructor of your other class whose exam is conflicting ours. (This will be needed to attend the make-up examination.)

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

P.S. There was an earlier suggested solution for the conflicting exams, which was to conduct the exams earlier at 16:30 for those students who have other exams at 17:40. Unfortunately, after several discussions with our instructors, we decided not to pursue this solution and instead, agree to offer make-up.

Posted by math 111 on 05.11.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

While you are reading the textbook, you may (or may not have) realized that there are some typos and errors which need to be fixed. You can reach an errata for the book from the web site of the author through this link.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 30.10.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

You can reach the sample solutions for the first midterm from this link. After your exams are graded, you shall find more information here regarding common mistakes.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 30.10.2018 under Very Important

Dear students,

The first midterm includes all the topics in Chapter 1 of our book except valid arguments with quantified sentences. (Though, it does include quantifiers along with negating statements with quantifiers.)

Study well. Come to instructors’ office hours. Good luck.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 23.10.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

As you know, we shall have our first midterm on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 17:40. The exam places are announced on the Student Information System which can be accessed from the following link: http://file.ma111.math.metu.edu.tr/sis.php. If your exam place does not show up for technical reasons, please send an e-mail with title [Exam Place Missing] to burakk@metu.edu.tr as soon as possible.

Please make sure that you attend the exam in the correct classroom.

Study well. Good luck.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 22.10.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear all,

Please read the following announcements carefully and pay attention especially to the first item.

• Our first midterm will be held this week on October 25 at 17:40. Exam places will be announced on Tuesday through the Student Information System. If you have another exam at the same time, please immediately contact the course coordinator Burak Kaya if you have not already done so.
• Burak Kaya will hold extra office hours this week on October 22, Monday between 11:40-12:50.

Study well.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 21.10.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

If you have other exams to be held on the same day as our midterm dates, you are expected to contact the course coordinator Burak Kaya at burakk@metu.edu.tr or in person at M-126 to resolve this issue. Students who do not inform the coordinator in advance may not be able to take a make-up exam or rescheduling.

Best regards,

MATH 111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 10.10.2018 under Uncategorized

Dear students,

It is MATH111 coordination’s decision that students are allowed to change their section only in the case that they have official excuses such as schedule conflicts, university sports team trainings etc. Those students who have such excuses and who wish to change their sections officially in the registration program should:

• send an e-mail titled [Section change request] to Burak Kaya through burakk@metu.edu.tr, explaning the reason of their request in detail. (If you claim that there is a schedule conflict, it will be checked through the system.)

Section changes will be handled after the add-drop period. If you do not have such excuses and wish to attend a section other than your registered section, please be aware that the attendance policy explained in the syllabus will be executed with respect to the attendance list that belongs to your registered section. As an illustration, consider the following cases:

1. Student A is in Section 3. Due to a schedule conflict, A attends Section 4 with at least %70 attendance and does not obtain at least 40 points from the midterms.
2. Student B is in Section 3. Even though B does not have a reasonable excuse not to attend Section 3, B chooses to attend Section 4 with at least %70 attendance and obtains at least 40 points from the midterms.
3. Student C is in Section 3. Even though C does not have a reasonable excuse not to attend Section 3, C chooses to attend Section 4 with at least %70 attendance but does not obtain 40 points from the midterms.

According to the policy, here is what is going to happen to these hypothetical students.

1. Since the registered section of A will be changed to Section 4 after the add-drop period, his attendance will be calculated via Section 4 list and hence A will not get an NA.
2. Since the registered section of B is Section 3, his attendance will be calculated via Section 3 list and B fails to meet %70-attendance criteria. However, since B collects 40 points from the midterms, B will not get an NA.
3. Since the registered section of C is Section 3, his attendance will be calculated via Section 3 list. Consequently, C fails to meet both %70-attendance criteria and 40-point criteria in the attendance policy. Therefore, C will get an NA and will not be able to attend the final exam. (Notice that C may have attended all lectures in Section 4 and may have signed for all lectures in Section 4’s attendance list. Nevertheless, this will have no effect on the computation of his attendance.)

Besides these points, it is also important to keep in mind the following:

• Each section’s instructor may be taking attendance with different approaches. One section’s instructor may be taking attendance twice on two-hour lecture days, whereas another section’s instructor may be taking attendance only once on each lecture day. It is up to your instructor how the attendance will be taken and will be counted.

Those students who have read this important announcement are kindly asked to inform other students about this post.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 09.10.2018 under Uncategorized

There will be four midterms (each out of 30) and a final exam (out of 80) points. The exam dates are as follows:

• Midterm 1: October 25, Thursday, 17:40.
• Midterm 2: November 15, Thursday, 17:40.
• Midterm 3: December 6, Thursday, 17:40.
• Midterm 4: December 27, Thursday, 17:40.
• Final: TBA.

Please make sure that you do not have any conflicting exams and/or personal business on these dates. As written in the course syllabus, you cannot take a make-up exam unless you have an official report and you cannot take more than one make-up exam even if you have official reports.

Posted by math 111 on 26.09.2018 under Very Important

Dear students,

Please read the following very carefully and follow this website regularly for announcements.

• The course syllabus is uploaded here.
• Attendance is required according to the following rule:
  • If you attend less than %70 percent of the classes and your four midterm scores add up to less than 40 points, then you shall not be able to take the final exam and get an NA grade.

  Besides this rule, the following rules also apply:

  • If your four midterm scores add up to less than 20 points, then you shall not be able to take the final exam and get an NA grade regardless of your attendance.
  • If you miss more than two midterms, then you shall not be able to take the final exam and get an NA grade regardless of your attendance.
• You are strongly advised to show up for the office hours and ask questions.
• Check the exam dates to avoid any conflicts.
• If you have any questions or concerns about the course policies, send an e-mail to the course coordinator Burak Kaya.

Best regards,

MATH111 Coordination.

Posted by math 111 on 26.09.2018 under Very Important