18.02

Table of contents

  1. Course Info
  2. Realistic Prerequisites
  3. Subject Matter
  4. Course Staff
  5. Lectures
  6. Problem Sets
  7. Exams
  8. Resources
  9. Grading
  10. Advice to Future Students

Course Info

Class Size 206
Hours/Week 9.4 (62 responses)
Instructors William Minicozzi (Lecturer), Kim, Haeri H. (Undergraduate Assistant), Park, Ariana A. (Undergraduate Assistant), Chen, Li, (Recitation Instructor)
Conway, Anthony, (Recitation Instructor), Cranford, Preston, (Recitation Instructor), Gravel, Katie (Recitation Instructor), Shen, Junliang (Recitation Instructor), Zhao, Yiming (Recitation Instructor), Zhuang, Ziquan (Recitation Instructor)  
# of Responses to Course 18 Underground Questions 78/206

Realistic Prerequisites

  • The content of 18.01 was a necessary prerequisite. Other than that, you would be good.

Subject Matter

  • Most thought it was a good balance between theoretical and applications of the theories. Some wished there would have been more connections of concepts learned to real life world applications.

Course Staff

  • Very friendly and approachable. TAs were also very helpful and thoroughly explained concepts or questions students had. They were welcoming to any type of questions.

Lectures

  • Most students believed that they learned from solving psets rather than lectures - and that this prepared them more for the tests. They believed that the lectures covered the concepts fine but still would have a hard time with the psets.
  • Textbooks helped clarify the lectures.

Problem Sets

  • Challenging.
  • Required time to think of applications of the concepts - OH and emailing TAs usually helped to go through problems on the pset.
  • Lectures notes are generally helpful for the psets.
  • Collaboration on psets with people were helpful.

Exams

  • The exams were considered difficult to finish on time but not totally unreasonable. The problems were thought to be quite challenging, but many complained about the allotted time given the problems.

Resources

  • Many referred to the textbook to clarify their understandings which was available on Canvas.
  • Lecture notes were very helpful to review concepts as well, also available on Canvas.

Grading

  • Students felt that grading was incredibly fair and reasonable.

Advice to Future Students

  1. “I think I would just say spend lots of time asking questions and clarifying concepts that you do not get. Also, do not be afraid to reach out for help. The staff are really friendly and are willing to assist you if you ask”
  2. “Work with a group. Get help early and often because if you get lost on something early it will make the later content very difficult.”