Just a chance for me to give some feedback on some of your most common… feedback. Of course your opinions are correct – they are your opinions. Here are my opinions on some of your opinions.

Normally the failing of teaching evaluation, is that ye never see the fruits of your criticisms. However, as I am currently drafting the MS 2002 notes ye have had a chance to improve your lot in this module at least.

A lot of people felt that through a combination of not leaving ye enough time to fill in notes, talking to fast or just going to fast, that ye didn’t have enough time to digest explanations. At least for the rest of this module we can address that.

Agreed

  1. Chapter Summaries I will include chapter summaries in future. 
  2. Further Remarks A few students feel that the notes are a bit short on detail. I will include further remarks in the notes. These will contain explanations, extensions, etc. of the core notes but will not be covered in class.
  3. The projected notes are difficult to read/ cluttered I will spread out the notes more in future for larger and clearer writing.
  4. Answers to Exercises I will in future give (just) the answers to exercises so ye have a good idea if ye have correctly done questions.
  5. Leave every second page blank for additional notes I really like this idea. The only problem is if it pushes up the cost of the notes for ye significantly — I’ll look into it.
  6. Put the exercises in the notes Excellent and obvious thing to do. Will do so in future.
  7. Give homework instead of two tests When I find out what the MS2002 continuous assessment has traditionally been, I might make a tweak to it. My choice of two tests is based on the fact that I believe ye will study for tests — I suppose ye would also have to work constantly if ye have regular homework.-
  8. Webpage is difficult to navigate I agree with you. I’ve improved it from before but I can’t really do much more I’m afraid. Just use the Category MS2001 and you should be O.K.
  9. Put the notes on a slide, and do examples on the blackboard This would be my preference but unfortunately the projector screen is in front of the blackboard and it would be a pain to keep having to keep moving the projector screen… I’ll think about it.

Disagree

  1. It’s hard to catch up after missing a class You’re not supposed to miss any classes. If you miss a class for a genuine reason you can borrow a classmate’s set of notes and take down the notes. If this is a problem send me an email.
  2. More Examples The notes contain a tonne of examples and as well as ALL of the Summer & Autumn exam papers e.g (page 84 to 90 inclusive contains a single proposition; the rest are all examples!). If you need more examples make your own by doing exercises.
  3. A complete set of notes/ (less to fill in) This is a recipe for disaster for a few reasons / (one of these — writing something keeps it from being too monotonous).
  4. Sample Test for continuous assessment I put three on the webpage!!
  5. Put up notes on the blackboard Never again. The problem with the blackboard is that with the volume of the material, we are writing non-stop and ye never get a chance to stop and think about the material.
  6. Give solutions to exercises No: As it stands you have worked examples presented in lectures and, when questions are asked, at tutorials. Finally at present there are no solutions to past papers online and I am loathe to put some up because students will then learn off how to do the few questions that do regularly occur. I would much rather ye sit down with a pen, and paper (and indeed your notes), and figure out for yourself these solutions – it would be far, far more beneficial. I understand that ye are in the business of passing exams, but I am in the business of of sending on students with a solid grounding in MS 2001 for MS 2002 and MS 3003. Learning off examples is not the way to go – if you do the work and figure out the solutions (even find similar examples in your notes), then ‘learning off’ the examples wouldn’t be too bad because you’ve at least gone through the logic in your head. Also I am very open to answering questions put in comments on the webpage. If you’ve read this far I reluctantly invite you to look at this for solutions.
  7. Less jargon/ use simpler language Theorems and definitions have to be precise for a rigorous theory.
  8. More structured tutorials The weekly summaries put on the webpage every week suggest which problems you should do. I have explained numerous times that the way you have to learn maths is by doing exercises. I am much more inclined to help students who have worked outside normal class hours hence I will continue to answer questions as long as they keep coming.

Thank you all very much for your feedback.

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