‘18.112: Functions of a Complex Variable’

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 29
Hours/Week 9.3 (15 responses)
Instructors Roman Bezrukavnikov
Overall Rating 5.9/7.0

Realistic Prerequisites

  • 18.100 was a hard prerequisite.

Subject Matter

  • The content was a broad mix of theoretical and applied.
  • There was a lot of intuition to be gained and there were many applications.

Course Staff

  • Very approachable. TAs were open and responsive.
  • Some students felt the course staff could have left more comments on psets.

Lectures

  • Most students found the lectures slow, and not very helpful, but good for solidifying proofs.
  • The textbook, lecture notes, and psets were more useful for learning the content

Problem Sets

  • Most students found the psets straightforward.
  • Some problems were very enjoyable and fun, others were very simple and unmotivated.
  • Students both worked together and by themselves.

Exams

  • Most students thought the exams were doable and not very difficult, and didn’t require lots of creativity.
  • Some students wished more practice material was made available in advance.

Resources

  • Textbook: Complex Analysis by Stein and Shakarchi
  • Lecture notes were also published, and followed the textbook closely.

Grading

  • Students felt that grading was lenient but not transparent.

Advice to Future Students

  1. “Read the textbook.”
  2. “Go back through lectures with another student and talk out all the proofs and theorems.”
  3. ”Good class, maybe a bit too slow on the lectures.”