The content of 18.02 is a listed prerequisite, but most students felt they did not use it in this course.
Some students found taking 18.03 before this course was helpful.
Subject Matter
This semester, many students thought it more theoretical than expected, but contained some application of the theories.
Course Staff
Very friendly. TAs were very helpful, and quick to respond to emails.
Prof. Sun also made sure to thoroughly answer all questions in class.
Lectures
Lectures and Psets were most helpful in the students’ understanding. Some students found that the lectures did not have enough examples worked out in class.
Lecture notes helped students review material confusing in lectures.
Problem Sets
Moderately challenging.
Students spent between 3-5 hours on each problem set, but some spent more time on them later in the term.
Psets contained a fair mix of both theorems and computational problems.
Psets seemed to help students reinforce concepts from lectures.
Exams
Many students felt the exams were very difficult to finish in time, as there were tedious hand calculations which took a majority of the time.
Many students used the lecture notes and completed review problems to study for the exam.
Resources
Course staff did not make a Piazza page, which made it difficult to ask questions while psetting.
Many students used Prof. Strang’s textbook, as Prof. Sun told students which sections to look at.
However, some students found this textbook confusing, and instead used Prof. Sun’s lecture notes, available on Canvas.
Grading
Students felt that grading was unclear and strict. It was not specified whether cutoffs given were for exams or the class overall.
Course staff did not announce final grade cutoffs, with a 90% not being enough for an A.