Thursday, April 3, 2008
Otherwise better known in York University as CSE 1090.
According to the Course Outline
We will learn the syntax of the logical language, that is, what syntactically correct proofs look like. We will learn what various syntactic constructs "say" (semantics). We will be pleased to know that correctly written proofs are concise and "checkable" means toward discovering mathematical "truths". We will also learn via a lot of practice how to write a large variety of proofs that certify all sorts of useful "truths" of mathematics.
This course is almost over, final is in 2 weeks. Now I ask myself have I learned these things they say I will be able to do? And the conscious mind says 'maybe' (yes, it talks in italics). Why maybe, well I can think logically, as in I can construct programs that seems to work as I intend for them to work. However, I knew how to do that before I started this course, so what did I learn from this course?
Well the only satisfiable answer I have, is the one presented to me by a Classmate. His theory is that there is a competition between various Professors at the University (especially the ones in Dept. of Mathematics). The conditions of winning the contest are quite simple, see who can fail most students or cause highest number of students to drop out. And it seems that this
hypothesis does hold some water.
Lets look as some numbers
Initial Class Start Size: 48 students
Class Size after 1 Quiz (value 4% of total grade): 40
Class Size after Midterm (value 30%): 25
Class Size after 4 Quiz (value 4%): 16
So class size going into the final is 33% of the original class. NOW that is assuming that ALL 16 students will write the final. Judging from the showing in the last quiz (Quiz it was held 2 weeks after quiz 4) atleast 2 of those students won't bother.
Best part of this drop out rate the grades
Class Avg after Midterm: 30%
Class Avg after Quiz 5 (excluding students who dropped out or didn't give the quiz): 49.8%
Now you might think, good so people who stayed in the program could atleast maybe pass. But real reason avg is hovering about 50% is due to very few (2) students who have gotten perfect in ALL their quizzes and tests. Rest of the class kinda fluctuates between doing good and failing, depending on the difficulty of the quizzes.
You may also think, well avg being so low, perhaps Professor will apply some sort of a Curve to the final grades. Well, maybe he will, we don't know. To me he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who likes curving the grades. Only reason he would curve it if he was absolutely forced to curve, by some external force.
My chances of passing this course, I'd put it at about 50/50. Depending on how generous he feels, and how much bullshitting I have to do on the final. In other words not very optimistic.
