Please note: this web page is from a past edition of MATH 101. Make sure you go to the current MATH 101 web page to get the proper information.

Homework

There are two types of homework in MATH 101: WeBWorK assignments and suggested problems. The purpose of both types is to help you practice for the quizzes and to solidify your mastery of the course learning goals.

The homework component of your grade in this course is determined by online WeBWorK assignments. The WeBWorK system has many advantages, including slightly randomizing homework problems and (perhaps best of all) providing you with instant feedback. Remember that the homework is intended to help you learn the course material, and therefore it should be done as you are studying; students who leave their homework to the night before it is due do poorly in this course. (Do not be tempted into finding ways to complete your WeBWorK assignments without working through the problems yourself; in addition to the consequences of violating UBC's academic misconduct policies, you will be depriving yourself of the practice necessary to do well on the quizzes.)

The online assignments are supplemented by weekly suggested problems; these problems are not handed in or graded, but they are a valuable component of your preparation for the quizzes. Suggested problems tend to come in two categories:

You should definitely do as many of the suggested problems as you can each week, in conjunction with completing your WeBWorK assignments. Trying some of the later (harder) problems on the list, in particular, gives you a specific type of preparation for the hard questions on the exams that WeBWorK can't supply well on its own. (For that matter, the suggested problems make great practice problems for the exams; they can even appear, unchanged, on the exams themselves!)

In short: students who don't do their homework tend to fail their quizzes and final exam—it's that simple. Students who not only solve the problems, but also think critically about what they have and haven't mastered, will be well prepared for the quizzes and final exam.

More information about the WeBWorK assignments

Each week you will be assigned roughly twenty WeBWorK problems. You will be able to access your WeBWorK assignments using your CWL (Campus-Wide Login). All assignments will be open starting at 8:00 AM on Tuesday mornings a week before they are due, and due at 9:00 PM on Wednesday nights; answers will be available a few minutes after the assignment deadline. For example, the first WeBWorK assignment must be completed by 9:00 PM on Wednesday, January 13. No extensions will be granted for WeBWorK assignments.

Your WeBWorK assignments count for 10% of your overall grade in this course. All twelve WeBWorK assignments will be counted equally (regardless of which assignments have more or fewer problems), except that the lowest score will automatically be dropped. If you have an illness or other circumstance that prevents you from completing one of the WeBWorK assignments, don't worry—your grade will not suffer, since that assignment will just be dropped. (You should still complete the problems later, though, since the purpose of the WeBWorK assignments is to give you practice on the types of problems that will appear on the quizzes.) For circumstances that force you to miss multiple WeBWorK assignments, see the web page on missed assessment.

More information about the suggested problems

Here you can download a list of suggested problems taken from the various recommended online textbooks. This list of suggested problems will continually grow throughout the semester (like the CLP notes), so come back each week or so to download the most recent version. All of the suggested problems have answers in the back of their books, except for those from Active Calculus. (Of course, you should always solve problems without looking at the answer first—only check the answer once you're done solving the problem)

If you have access to the 7th edition of Stewart's textbook, you are welcome to also use last year's list of suggested problems from Stewart; the answers are in the back of the book, and a student solution manual is available from the publisher.