18.440 Probability & Random Variables
Fall 2012
Instructor: Scott Roger Sheffield
TA: Ruthi Hortsch
Lecture: MWF10 (34-101)
Announcements
final
Dear class,I added the spring 2011 final with solutions to the web page. The ten-problem series covered in the last three lectures and the posted spring 2011 final are both similar in style, scope, and difficulty to the coming final. On both of these two practice exams, I estimate that the cutoff for an A grade would be about 77 precent, and the cutoff for a B grade about 60.
To check your preparedness for the exam, you should make sure you can comfortably solve all of the practice problems on the course web page (including those on older midterms, the other practice final problems, older practice miderms, and homeworks).
Announced on 16 December 2012 1:43 p.m. by Scott Roger Sheffield
18.440 TA Office Hours
(As usual means 3-5pm in 26-310.)
Ruthi
Announced on 13 December 2012 12:02 p.m. by Ruthi Hortsch
Problem Set 9
Some people had trouble downloading this (math website down). Here are the problems for the problem set due tomorrow:A. FROM TEXTBOOK CHAPTER EIGHT:
Problems: 4, 11, 15
Theoretical Exercises: 8, 9
B. FROM TEXTBOOK CHAPTER NINE:
Problems and Theoretical Exercises: 4, 7, 8, 9
Self-Test Problems and Exercises: 1
Announced on 30 November 2012 12:02 a.m. by Scott Roger Sheffield
second midterm
Dear class,The second midterm exam solutions are up on the public web page and the grades are available at stellar.
The exam scores were a little lower than last time, I think mainly because the problems were a bit trickier, and there were lots of places to make little mistakes. I also wonder whether missing the review lecture (due to the hurricane) had some impact.
The class average was 65.
About 60 percent of the class scored above 60.
About 10 percent of the class scored below 40.
I guess these are very roughly the A and B cutoffs, but of course one should take the whole class performance into account, not the one exam.
We will have three successive review lectures for the final, so I hope we'll all be in really excellent shape by then.
Feel free to stop by my office hours if you'd like to discuss any aspects of the course.
All the best,
Scott
Announced on 16 November 2012 6:13 p.m. by Scott Roger Sheffield
midterm exam on Friday
Dear class,This just a friendly reminder that our second midterm exam will take place this Friday, November 16.
Due to the hurricane, I will not be giving the dedicated review lecture (Lecture 28 on the public web page). But you should still take some time to look over the Lecture 28 slides. They contain a list of highlights from the previous ten or so lectures, and will serve mainly to remind you of what we have done and what you need to study.
The exam is cumulative, but it will be somewhat weighted toward material covered more recently.
Some ways to prepare for the exam:
1. Reviewing the lecture slides (and the book exposition covering the same material).
2. Redoing some of the problem set problems without looking at the solutions.
3. Doing previous year exams and practice exams (while timing yourselves, to make sure you are really ready to solve the problems in an exam situation).
Also, I'll have office hours today from 2 to 4 in 2-180, and
I'm more than happy to answer any last minute questions. Ruthi
will also have her usual office hours tomorrow from 3 to 5.
Cheers,
Scott
Announced on 14 November 2012 9:08 a.m. by Scott Roger Sheffield
