The content of 18.01 or 18.01A 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
People found the professor (John Bush) and the TAs to be extremely helpful and approachable. Many students cited office hours as a great resource.
Lectures
Many students believed that the lectures were decent, but fast-paced and learned more from psets.
Recitation, notes, textbooks helped clarify the lectures.
Problem Sets
Time Consuming.
Textbook helped in completing psets.
Collaboration was helpful.
Psets were found tedious and challenging, but also interesting and a good supplement to the course material.
Exams
The exams were considered difficult to finish on time but not totally unreasonable. Many complained about the allotted time given the problems.
Students found the exams to be easier than the psets and more comparable to recitation problems. They found the cheat sheet helpful.
Resources
There was no provided textbook, but students used a PDF of the textbook online for problems.
Students used supplemental notes, such as https://math.mit.edu/~jorloff/suppnotes/suppnotes02.
Students found the textbook, supplemental notes, and lecture videos to be helpful in learning the material.
Grading
Students felt that grading fair.
Advice to Future Students
“Definitely do the problem sets early and as lectures pass, because doing it all in a day is not fun and you will appreciate it to do the one pset problem that corresponds to the lecture. Also, do the practice problems from the book if time permits those help so much! Go to lecture too definitely being in there helps you focus on the subject and begin to learn even if you don’t quite understand all after lecture it’s a good start”
“When there is something confusing, take the time immediately to ask questions and review on your own”