‘18.100B: Real Analysis’

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 43
Hours/Week 7.1 (21 responses)
Instructors Tobias Colding
Overall Rating 5.0/7.0

Realistic Prerequisites

  • Familiarity with the content of 18.01 is strongly encouraged.
  • Experience with proofreading is recommended, but not necessary.

Subject Matter

  • Most believe the content very theoretical, with some applications near the end of the semester.
  • Knowledge was foundational.

Course Staff

  • Approachable and knowledgeable. The professor was very willing to help and encouraged students to use office hours and other resources.

Lectures

  • Students found the lectures mostly useful but sometimes disorganized. They were the main source of learning for most.
  • Textbooks helped clarify the lectures.

Problem Sets

  • Most students found the psets very fair and manageable.
  • Psets could usually be completed by reviewing lecture material.

Exams

  • The exams were considered very reasonable and did not demand too much creativity.
  • Open notes.

Resources

  • There were multiple textbooks, but none of them were particularly followed. TBB (Thomsom, Bruckner, and Bruckner) was particularly insightful.
  • There were no lecture notes, but there were lecture recordings.

Grading

  • Students felt that grading was mostly fair and the policy was transparent.
  • Some felt that grading was sometimes unclear.

Advice to Future Students

  1. “Start early on the psets. It’s hard to do the hardest problems under pressure.”
  2. “If you want to see whether pure math is for you or not, or you want to learn how to write proofs, this class is what you should take.”