From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Wed Oct 19 23:08:08 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 23:08:08 -0400 Subject: [944] 46-944 Course info and website. Message-ID: Hi All, Looking forward to seeing you in class tomorrow. This is an introductory message with some course and logistical information. If you're getting this message you're registered for the class, and I've signed you up for the mailing list. All info about the class can be found on the class webstie: https://www.math.cmu.edu/~gautam/sj/teaching/2022-23/944-scalc-finance1/ If you lose this link, just Google me, and there's a link from my web page. I will not use Canvas. Things to review before class: 1. First week: Review your basic fundamentals in probability, and look over lecture notes and my slides on the class website. I won't go through the basic notions of independence etc., and will expect you have familiarity with this material. 2. Second week: Please look at the videos in the Stochastic Calculus Self Study, Modules 1 through 7. Due to time constraints, we will not go over this in too much detail in class, and I will expect some familiarity with probability. Watching these videos will help. Lecture notes: I've posted lecture notes online from when I taught this course in (2019). Unfortunately since then there were a few changes made to the MSCF curriculum. Thus the beginning of the course will be a bit different from the lecture notes. In a few weeks I will catch up and then follow the lecture notes; though I will not get through all the material. In lieu of updating the lecture notes, I will post slides from my lectures. These slides are a bit different from standard "power point" ones used for presentations. My slides typically contain a few lines of text, and *statements* of problems, not solutions or justification. I will write on the slides by hand during class, and fill in the details. I believe it is important that we do these calculations in real time in order to thoroughly understand the material. I will post both the annotated slides and the un-annotated slides online. If you're taking notes, you can grab the slides from the most recent lecture before hand to save you some time. (Also, if you want to peak ahead, my annotated slides from the time I taught this course in 2021 are on last years website, which is linked from this years website.) Attendance: The steering committee has requested attendance be recorded and made a part of your grade. Accordingly, attendance will count as 5% of your overall grade, and will be computed as follows: * To account for interviews and other special circumstances, you may miss up to 3 lectures without penalty. * Missing more than 3 lectures will decrease the attendance portion of your grade proportionally. * I will only consider making exceptions to this policy for unexpected severe emergencies that require your absence for more than 12 days. Midterm: There will be a closed book in class midterm on Tuesday November 15th. Please mark your calendar. Homework: The first homework will post sometime tomorrow on the class website. Your homework should be submitted on Gradescope. Discussion board: If you have any math questions, please use the class discussion board. We will monitor it daily. (Please do not email me math questions, but post them on the discussion board instead.) See you in class tomorrow. Best, Gautam -- Practice safe eating; always use condiments. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Oct 20 16:00:41 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2022 16:00:41 -0400 Subject: [944] Office hours, Homework, Recitation, and Grading rubric Message-ID: Hi All, 1. There will be a recitation tomorrow at 10:30AM led by your TA Jonghwa park. 2. Your first homework is online. (I will usually announce this in class, and not send you a separate email about it, unless I have something else to notify you about.) Your homework is due on Gradescope before class one week from today. (If you're running late, please look up the late homework policy is on the class website.) I strongly recommend thinking about the homework problems early, and not leaving it for the last minute. There are typically a few problems that require "some thought" to work out the solution, and you will rarely get problems that involve just blinding substituting from a formula you memorize. I encourage you to collaborate on the homework; but please write up your solutions independently. (Also use the feel free to use the discussion board to get ideas.) 3. Office hours from next week: Jonghwa: Tuesdays from 3:30PM to 5:00PM Gautam: Wednesdays from 12:00PM to 1:00PM (I may be able to stay until 1:15 on some weeks). Office hours will be on Zoom, and a meeting link and password will be posted on the class website. I looked at the MSCF calendar and didn't see any conflict with these times. If there is an MSCF event / course that this conflicts with please let me know, and I will see if we can resolve it. 4. Thank you for pointing out the error in my grading rubric from today ?. I have adjusted it: Attendance: 5% Homework: 10% Midterm: 25% Final: 60% The new rubric is on the class website (along with other rules / rest of the syllabus / references). Best, Gautam -- Dawn is nature's way of telling you to go to bed. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Tue Oct 25 14:25:42 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:25:42 -0400 Subject: [944] Lecture today Message-ID: Hi New York Students, Unfortunately something went wrong in the middle of the lecture today; I waited a few minutes, but then was told that the internet wouldn't come back in finite time. The recording worked; there's a pause in the recording when the NY connection dropped. If you skip over that, the rest of the lecture should be intact. GI PS: Reminder we have office hours today (3:30pm) and tomorrow (12:00) on Zoom. The Zoom meeting IDs are online. -- What do you call security guards working outside Samsung shops? Guardians of the Galaxy From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Oct 27 13:54:15 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2022 13:54:15 -0400 Subject: [944] Homework, Solutions, Attendance, and Recitation Message-ID: Hi All, 1. Your next homework is online (due one week from today). 2. Solutions to this weeks homework will post tomorrow (after the late deadline). 3. Please submit your homework through gradescope; do not email it to me. Homework that is emailed to me won't get graded, so please make sure you are uploading your own work. 4. There will be a recitation tomorrow at 10:30AM. Jonghwa will mainly do problems and examples related to the class material this week. 4. You do not need to email me if you can not make it to class. As per the attendance policy, you may miss 3 lectures without affecting your grade; the remaining lectures count for 0.5% each, up to a maximum of 5%. If you are sick, or have other extenuating circumstances, please document it, and save the documentation. If at the end of the semester you have missed more than 3 lectures, then please let me know. I will consult with Diffy/Jess to determine which absences are allowed. Note, MSCF has a policy about interviews. In the past they HAVE NOT allowed missing lectures or deadlines because of interviews. As far as I am aware this policy is still in place; regardless, I will follow the current MSCF policy regarding interviews. Best, Gautam -- The Web isn't better than sex, but sliced bread is in serious trouble. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Sat Nov 5 16:27:58 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer via mscf-944) Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 16:27:58 -0400 Subject: [944] Midterm Message-ID: Dear All, We have a midterm on Tue Nov 15th, in class. It will be closed book exam. Syllabus: The exam will cover everything we have done in class, up to and including It?'s formula. I will do a few more examples of It?'s formula in class on Tuesday, and then I will spend Thursday doing a review. Calculators: Please bring a calculator to the exam. I will follow the same policy recommended by other MSCF math instructors. Your calculator must not have electronic communications capabilities, can not access the internet, and can not read / store document files. (If you don't have a calculator, please buy one. Simple calculators are available online for about $10; probably you can get them for a similar price in local stores as well.) The main goal of the exam is to give you an idea of how well you understand the material. With mathematical courses such as this one, one common trap is believing you understand the material because you can follow along in lecture, or read the books / notes. This is very different from being able do problems yourself! So I strongly recommend you practice doing problems, without looking at the solutions. There will be no proofs on the exam. All proofs I do, or ask you to do on homework, are only to help you understand the material. All questions on your midterm will ask you to "compute something", and will have a clear answer (either numerical or symbolic). The questions on the exam will not be repeats of problems you've seen before; but will use ideas you've seen before. Since the midterm only tests a few basic tools, students usually find it easier to do well on the midterm in comparison to the final. For example, last year about half the class got an A on the midterm, but only about 40% got an A on the final. (This is just for your information only: There are no grade quotas; if your performance on the exam demonstrates a solid understanding of the required material, you will get an A. I recall one year where almost 60% of the students ended with an A- or higher.) For you to practice: 1. I will put up midterms and solutions from the last three years on this years website. (If you want more midterms, you can go to last years website and look at the midterms from there. I won't put up those solutions though. Also the syllabus of this course was different in 2020, and didn't include the Binomial model.) 2. On Thursday (after HW3 is due), I will put up an optional homework. While this homework will not be due, the problems are good practice, and some of them will be on the next homework (due Nov 22). As you can see from previous exams, there are a few questions that you can do directly from the basics (compute conditional expectations, It? decomposition, quadratic variation, etc.). There is usually a question or two that requires some thought on how to do the computation. (For example, look at question 3 on last years midterm: A brute force computation will get you the answer, but will take an unreasonably long amount of time. But a few minutes of thinking gives a short and elegant solution.) Office hours next week are the same; though I have to leave a bit early after class on Tuesday, so I may not be able to take too many questions. On Thursday, I will teach from New York. I will be in the NY office until about 3PM so if you have questions you can stop by after lunch. The week of the midterm we will hold office hours on Monday at a time that will be announced shortly. Best, Gautam -- They say hard work never hurt anybody, but why take the chance. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Fri Nov 11 16:46:57 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:46:57 -0500 Subject: [944] Midterm In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, Next week we will have office hours at the following times: Monday 12:00-1:00 (on Zoom) Monday 5:30-6:30 (on Zoom) The midterm will be on Tuesday (closed book, in class, see below). Please bring a calculator (see restrictions below). I've put up solutions to HW3, extra practice problems and three previous midterms. I strongly recommend practicing by doing problems (without looking at the solutions), and then checking your answers. Best, Gautam On Sat, Nov 05, 2022 at 04:27:58PM -0400, Gautam Iyer via mscf-944 wrote: > Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 16:27:58 -0400 > From: Gautam Iyer via mscf-944 > To: mscf-944 at lists.andrew.cmu.edu > Subject: [944] Midterm > > Dear All, > > We have a midterm on Tue Nov 15th, in class. It will be closed book > exam. > > Syllabus: The exam will cover everything we have done in class, up to > and including It?'s formula. I will do a few more examples of It?'s > formula in class on Tuesday, and then I will spend Thursday doing a > review. > > Calculators: Please bring a calculator to the exam. I will follow the > same policy recommended by other MSCF math instructors. Your calculator > must not have electronic communications capabilities, can not access the > internet, and can not read / store document files. (If you don't have a > calculator, please buy one. Simple calculators are available online for > about $10; probably you can get them for a similar price in local stores > as well.) > > The main goal of the exam is to give you an idea of how well you > understand the material. With mathematical courses such as this one, one > common trap is believing you understand the material because you can > follow along in lecture, or read the books / notes. This is very > different from being able do problems yourself! So I strongly recommend > you practice doing problems, without looking at the solutions. > > There will be no proofs on the exam. All proofs I do, or ask you to do > on homework, are only to help you understand the material. All questions > on your midterm will ask you to "compute something", and will have a > clear answer (either numerical or symbolic). > > The questions on the exam will not be repeats of problems you've seen > before; but will use ideas you've seen before. Since the midterm only > tests a few basic tools, students usually find it easier to do well on > the midterm in comparison to the final. For example, last year about > half the class got an A on the midterm, but only about 40% got an A on > the final. (This is just for your information only: There are no grade > quotas; if your performance on the exam demonstrates a solid > understanding of the required material, you will get an A. I recall one > year where almost 60% of the students ended with an A- or higher.) > > For you to practice: > > 1. I will put up midterms and solutions from the last three years on > this years website. (If you want more midterms, you can go to > last years website and look at the midterms from there. I won't > put up those solutions though. Also the syllabus of this course > was different in 2020, and didn't include the Binomial model.) > > 2. On Thursday (after HW3 is due), I will put up an optional > homework. While this homework will not be due, the problems are > good practice, and some of them will be on the next homework (due > Nov 22). > > As you can see from previous exams, there are a few questions that you > can do directly from the basics (compute conditional expectations, It? > decomposition, quadratic variation, etc.). There is usually a question > or two that requires some thought on how to do the computation. (For > example, look at question 3 on last years midterm: A brute force > computation will get you the answer, but will take an unreasonably long > amount of time. But a few minutes of thinking gives a short and elegant > solution.) > > Office hours next week are the same; though I have to leave a bit early > after class on Tuesday, so I may not be able to take too many questions. > On Thursday, I will teach from New York. I will be in the NY office > until about 3PM so if you have questions you can stop by after lunch. > > The week of the midterm we will hold office hours on Monday at a time > that will be announced shortly. > > Best, > > Gautam > > > -- > They say hard work never hurt anybody, but why take the chance. > _______________________________________________ > mscf-944 mailing list > mscf-944 at lists.andrew.cmu.edu > https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/mscf-944 -- Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Mon Nov 14 11:31:03 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:31:03 -0500 Subject: [944] Midterm In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, We will have use of both rooms for the midterm tomorrow. Please use both rooms and space yourselves out. Reminder: 1. We have office hours today (see times below) 2. Bring a calculator (see rules below) 3. The exam is closed book, no formula sheets. (See syllabus/rules below) Also, since some of you have asked: I won't post solutions to questions that I didn't solve in Lecture 7; however, we would be happy to solve any questions you are curious about during office hours. Best, Gautam On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 04:46:57PM -0500, Gautam Iyer wrote: > > Hi All, > > Next week we will have office hours at the following times: > > Monday 12:00-1:00 (on Zoom) > Monday 5:30-6:30 (on Zoom) > > The midterm will be on Tuesday (closed book, in class, see below). > Please bring a calculator (see restrictions below). I've put up > solutions to HW3, extra practice problems and three previous midterms. I > strongly recommend practicing by doing problems (without looking at the > solutions), and then checking your answers. > > Best, > > Gautam > > On Sat, Nov 05, 2022 at 04:27:58PM -0400, Gautam Iyer via mscf-944 wrote: > >> Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 16:27:58 -0400 >> From: Gautam Iyer via mscf-944 >> To: mscf-944 at lists.andrew.cmu.edu >> Subject: [944] Midterm >> >> Dear All, >> >> We have a midterm on Tue Nov 15th, in class. It will be closed book >> exam. >> >> Syllabus: The exam will cover everything we have done in class, up to >> and including It?'s formula. I will do a few more examples of It?'s >> formula in class on Tuesday, and then I will spend Thursday doing a >> review. >> >> Calculators: Please bring a calculator to the exam. I will follow the >> same policy recommended by other MSCF math instructors. Your calculator >> must not have electronic communications capabilities, can not access the >> internet, and can not read / store document files. (If you don't have a >> calculator, please buy one. Simple calculators are available online for >> about $10; probably you can get them for a similar price in local stores >> as well.) >> >> The main goal of the exam is to give you an idea of how well you >> understand the material. With mathematical courses such as this one, one >> common trap is believing you understand the material because you can >> follow along in lecture, or read the books / notes. This is very >> different from being able do problems yourself! So I strongly recommend >> you practice doing problems, without looking at the solutions. >> >> There will be no proofs on the exam. All proofs I do, or ask you to do >> on homework, are only to help you understand the material. All questions >> on your midterm will ask you to "compute something", and will have a >> clear answer (either numerical or symbolic). >> >> The questions on the exam will not be repeats of problems you've seen >> before; but will use ideas you've seen before. Since the midterm only >> tests a few basic tools, students usually find it easier to do well on >> the midterm in comparison to the final. For example, last year about >> half the class got an A on the midterm, but only about 40% got an A on >> the final. (This is just for your information only: There are no grade >> quotas; if your performance on the exam demonstrates a solid >> understanding of the required material, you will get an A. I recall one >> year where almost 60% of the students ended with an A- or higher.) >> >> For you to practice: >> >> 1. I will put up midterms and solutions from the last three years on >> this years website. (If you want more midterms, you can go to >> last years website and look at the midterms from there. I won't >> put up those solutions though. Also the syllabus of this course >> was different in 2020, and didn't include the Binomial model.) >> >> 2. On Thursday (after HW3 is due), I will put up an optional >> homework. While this homework will not be due, the problems are >> good practice, and some of them will be on the next homework (due >> Nov 22). >> >> As you can see from previous exams, there are a few questions that you >> can do directly from the basics (compute conditional expectations, It? >> decomposition, quadratic variation, etc.). There is usually a question >> or two that requires some thought on how to do the computation. (For >> example, look at question 3 on last years midterm: A brute force >> computation will get you the answer, but will take an unreasonably long >> amount of time. But a few minutes of thinking gives a short and elegant >> solution.) >> >> Office hours next week are the same; though I have to leave a bit early >> after class on Tuesday, so I may not be able to take too many questions. >> On Thursday, I will teach from New York. I will be in the NY office >> until about 3PM so if you have questions you can stop by after lunch. >> >> The week of the midterm we will hold office hours on Monday at a time >> that will be announced shortly. >> >> Best, >> >> Gautam >> >> >> -- >> They say hard work never hurt anybody, but why take the chance. >> _______________________________________________ >> mscf-944 mailing list >> mscf-944 at lists.andrew.cmu.edu >> https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/mscf-944 > > -- > Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red. > _______________________________________________ > mscf-944 mailing list > mscf-944 at lists.andrew.cmu.edu > https://lists.andrew.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/mscf-944 -- MICROSOFT: Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Them From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Tue Nov 15 14:03:43 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2022 14:03:43 -0500 Subject: [944] Midterm and HW5 Message-ID: Hi All, Hopefully the midterm went well today. I'll let you know when it's graded, and will announce your grades after that. (Your midterm and solutions are online if you want to take a look; I may update them after the midterm is graded to include common mistakes.) For the rest of the course, homework will be due on Tuesdays. Your next homework is due one week from today, and is online already. To accommodate this, we will move our office hours. I will hold my office hours on Mondays from 12:00--1:00. Jonghwa will announce his office hours shortly. Best, Gautam -- 100 THINGS I'D DO IF I EVER BECAME AN EVIL OVERLORD 23. I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Wed Nov 16 21:52:21 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2022 21:52:21 -0500 Subject: [944] Office hours Message-ID: Hi All, Since the homework is now due Tuesday, we are planning on changing our office hours. Can you fill out your preferences here: https://zym.math.cmu.edu/t/office-hours-the-rest-of-the-course/983 Please vote by 5pm tomorrow (Thursday) so we can announce office hours tomorrow night. Best, Gautam PS: You will most likely get your midterms back on Friday. -- Seen on the back of a dirty car: washme.com From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Nov 17 21:29:14 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2022 21:29:14 -0500 Subject: [944] Midterm grades Message-ID: Hi All, Your midterm is now graded, and your scores should be accessible to on the class website. The grade cutoffs are APPROXIMATELY: 22: Approximately bottom end of A- 18: Approximately bottom end of B- 13: Approximately bottom end of C- 10: Approximately bottom end of D Please note that the quartiles, and your percentile rank on the class website are for your information only; I do not use them to assign letter grades. There were 22 students who got a perfect score, which is excellent! WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE FINAL It will be "similar in spirit"; but past experience shows that students who get around or below B-/C+ on the midterm have a very difficulty time on the final. If you got in this range, my main advice to you is to practice! The best way to get better is to do problems. Specifically, work on problems you don't know how to solve, get a hint/help, then see if you can finish the problem yourself without more help. VIEWING YOUR MIDTERMS You may view exams in Diffy/Jess's offices (or scan them on your phone). However, following MSCF policy, if you take them out of the office you may not request regrading of any problems. Pittsburgh students: Jess is available at the following times for you to view your exams: Monday 11/21: 1:00-3:30pm Tuesday 11/22: 3:00pm - 5:00pm NY students, please ask Diffy for times. REGRADING POLICY: If you believe a particular question has been graded incorrectly, then you must do so in writing by email, or by leaving a post-it note on the front of the exam indicating which question you want re-graded. Please do NOT include any explanation or message. Your grade will be solely based on our interpretation of what is written on the exam, and not on any explanation you provide outside the exam. We will cover up the original grade, and independently regrade the requested question. The new grade will replace your old grade, EVEN IF IT IS LOWER. I strongly recommend you read and understand the solutions posted online before requesting a regrade, because your grade could become lower. Best, Gautam -- 665.9238429876 - Number of the Pentium Beast From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Nov 17 21:34:56 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2022 21:34:56 -0500 Subject: [944] Office hours In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, Following results of the poll, new office hours for the rest of the semester will be: Fridays: 1:00PM--1:55PM Mondays: 6:00PM--7:00PM There will be a recitation tomorrow, and Jonghwa will do various things related to the Black Scholes equations. Best, Gautam -- A 14.4 modem makes you want to get out and push! From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Wed Nov 23 14:37:41 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2022 14:37:41 -0500 Subject: [944] HW and solutions Message-ID: Hi All, Happy Thanksgiving. I put up solutions to last weeks homework earlier today. (Also next weeks homework was up yesterday.) Best, Gautam -- Can February march? No, but April May From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Tue Nov 29 14:57:37 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2022 14:57:37 -0500 Subject: [944] Last homework Message-ID: Hi All, Your last homework is online. (Solutions to todays homework will go online tomorrow after the due date.) The last homework is due one week from today (Dec 6th). Since your **FINAL** is on Dec 8th, there will be no 24 hour late extension for this homework, and solutions will post on Dec 6th after class. About the question Asian options in the homework that was due today, many of you asked me about it and did it using the multi-dimensional It? formula. While this is correct, you don't need it for this problem! The process Y is differentiable in time. So you can set g(t, x) = f(t, x, Y_t) and note X_t = g(t, S_t). Now you can apply the one dimensional It? formula, and work the problem out. (See the solutions for details when the post tomorrow.) Of course, using the multi-dimensional It? formula is correct, and will give the same answer. I plan to finish the material on Thursday this week. I will shortly post finals from the last 3 years and solutions, and do a review on Tuesday next week. NY students: I will be in NY on Dec 6th, and will be available after class until my flight leaves (2:30PM, I think). Diffy may feed you lunch. We will also have Zoom office hours on Tue/Wed next week. I will get your schedule from Diffy/Jess and announce times later this week. Best, Gautam -- Did you hear about the cheese factory that exploded in france? There was nothing but des brie. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Wed Nov 30 22:35:34 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2022 22:35:34 -0500 Subject: [944] Final + end course notes Message-ID: Hi All, 1. Your final will be on Thu Dec 8th, 10:00AM--1:00pm. It will follow the same rules as the midterm (closed book, in class, calculators allowed). As with the midterm your calculator must not be able to access the internet, and must not be able to read/store document files. 2. The final will cover everything done in this course. The questions will be similar in flavor to the midterm (no proofs, every question requires you to compute something and get an answer). However, given that there is more material, and that the material towards the end of the course is a bit more involved, students typically find the final a little harder. Typically only about 10% of students, get a perfect score on the final (this is about half as many as those who get perfect scores on the midterm). To give you an idea about grades, on the 2021 final, approximately 85% was an A-, and 65% was a B-. This is for your reference only. I assign grades based on the difficulty of each individual exam, and not percentage quotas; the grade cutoffs for your exam will likely be different. 3. I will finish all class material tomorrow (Thursday). Your recitation Friday, and class Tuesday next week will both be reviews. Previous years finals and solutions are online. We will announce office hours for next week shortly. 4. The best way to study for the final is to practice! Do problems yourself. If you get stuck, look up a solution / seek help. Understand the concept, and then see if you can do the problem yourself without help. Old exams are online; there are also plenty of problems in the references on the class website. 5. Please fill out faculty course evaluations, I value your feedback. Two incentives: 1. If 75% of you fill out course evaluations, I will release your grades as soon as they are available. If not, I will only release them at the very end of the grading period. 2. The steering committee has asked that we allot time *DURING CLASS* for you to fill out course evaluations; If the response rate is less than 75% by Tuesday, I will allot time DURING THE REVIEW SESSION for you to fill out FCEs. Here's the link to the FCE site: https://cmu.smartevals.com Best, Gautam -- 'Experience' -- A comb life gives you after you lose your hair. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Dec 1 13:50:41 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2022 13:50:41 -0500 Subject: [944] Review session Tuesday In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, Class on Tuesday will be a review. Please fill out the poll here for your preferences on what you want me to review: https://zym.math.cmu.edu/t/review-problems-for-tuesday/999 If there are specific problems (homework, old exams you had trouble with, just leave it as a comment). I'll do as many as I have time for. Also, please fill out faculty course evaluations, I value your feedback. Two incentives: 1. If 75% of you fill out course evaluations, I will release your grades as soon as they are available. If not, I will only release them at the very end of the grading period. 2. The steering committee has asked that we allot time *DURING CLASS* for you to fill out course evaluations; If the response rate is less than 75% by Tuesday, I will allot time DURING THE REVIEW SESSION for you to fill out FCEs. Here's the link to the FCE site: https://cmu.smartevals.com Best, Gautam -- When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Fri Dec 2 17:03:27 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2022 17:03:27 -0500 Subject: [944] Office hours next week Message-ID: Hi All, 1. I will teach from NY Tuesday. It will just be a review. Vote here for the type of problems you want to see: https://zym.math.cmu.edu/t/review-problems-for-tuesday/999 2. Please fill out FCEs! I value your feedback. If I have below a 75% response rate on FCEs, then I will have to give you 15 minutes during the review session to fill out FCEs (giving less time for review). Fill out FCEs here: https://cmu.smartevals.com Currently the FCE response rate is 32% in NY and 60% in Pittsburgh. 3. Office hours next week: a. Jonghwa has his usual office hours Monday b. I will be available after class in NY until about 2:30PM. (I need a break to get lunch though) c. I will hold Zoom office hours on 11:00AM--11:50AM on Wednesday d. Jonghwa will hold Zoom office hours Wed 2:00--3:00 on Wednesday Best, Gautam -- How does a computer get drunk? It takes screen shots. From gi1242+944 at cmu.edu Thu Dec 15 15:57:39 2022 From: gi1242+944 at cmu.edu (Gautam Iyer) Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:57:39 -0500 Subject: [944] Final grades Message-ID: Hi All, My apologies to those of you who emailed me. This week was exceptionally busy, and I'm only just getting through everything. I will try and respond (but it might be a bit...) Your final is graded and the overall performance was very good. Pittsburgh students: Your grades will be available on S3 shortly, and your score on the final will be available on the class website. New York students: Since the FCE rate was below 75%, your final scores and grades will be available 4:00PM on Dec 22. The approximate grading scale for the final was: 29: Approximately bottom end of A- 22: Approximately bottom end of B- 17: Approximately bottom end of C- I computed your final grades using the weights described on the class website, after normalizing your exam/homework scores, and assessing any late penalties. Please ignore any percentile ranks / statistics you see on the class website. They are for your information only; I do not use them. Fourteen students got a perfect score, which is excellent! Everyone who got lower than a B- will have a chance to increase their grade (up to a maximum of B-) by taking the makeup final / second chance exam. I will contact everyone eligible to take the makeup exam later today (or early tomorrow). VIEWING YOUR FINALS: Pittsburgh students: They will be with Jess in the MSCF office. NY students, it will be in Diffy's office. You may view them in the respective office, or scan them on your phone. However, following MSCF policy, if you take them out of the office you may not request regrading of any problems. I suggest you take a picture of your exam, and view it at leisure, leaving your original with Diffy/Jess. REGRADING POLICY: If you believe a particular question has been graded incorrectly, then you must do so in writing by email, or by leaving a post-it note on the front of the exam indicating which question you want re-graded. Please do NOT include any explanation or message. Your grade will be solely based on our interpretation of what is written on the exam, and not on any explanation you provide outside the exam. We will cover up the original grade, and independently regrade the requested question. The new grade will replace your old grade, EVEN IF IT IS LOWER. I strongly recommend you read and understand the solutions posted online before requesting a regrade, because your grade could become lower. Overall, I hope you enjoyed this Mini as much as I enjoyed interacting with you, and I wish you success in your future careers. Of course, this isn't entirely a selfless wish -- since one of you will almost certainly be working for a bank that manages my retirement someday... :) Best wishes and happy holidays, Gautam -- Inflation is so high right now that McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.