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I have posted a description of the form of the continuation exam under Resources.
The continuation exam will be oral. The session will be approximately 30 min long. It will be composed of the following elements:
- First the candidate will have 5 minutes to explain any theorem or calculation technique freely chosen by the candidate from the curriculum.
- Then the candidate will be asked to present a topic from the curriculum which will be randomly chosen during the examination. Approximately 10 minutes. The candidate will have a few minutes to collect thoughts before starting.
- Then the candidate will be asked to do one or two exercises on the curriculum, as determined by the examiners.
More details on the second point: There will be 6 predefined topics covering the curriculum, and on the examination day we will throw a dice to determine which one should be presented.
There were 29 completed exams and the grades were distributed as follows:
A: 9
B: 9
C: 6
D: 1
E: 0
F: 4
Merry christmas and happy new year!
I have posted the exam together with solutions under Resources.
For this session there are no specific exercises but Gaute will answer any question concerning the curriculum you might have.
For the repetitions I will go through the slides prepared by J?rgen Rennemo last year, available here.
I invite you to go through them beforehand so that we can pinpoint the real difficulties.
I have posted a somewhat incomplete set of corrections to the first compulsory exercise.
It is now posted under Resources. Note that many of the exercises have already been given as weekly assignments.
For the rest of the semester we will cover the following sections in Gamelin:
VI.1-4,
VII.1-3,
VIII.1-2, 4, 6.
This should leave 2 weeks for repetition before the exam.
Unfortunately this leaves out some central topics like VIII.8 and IX.1-3. We will see if any of it can be covered at least superficially.
You are invited to give feedback about the course to the student representatives through the following survey.
Don't forget that you have the Discourse function in Canvas to discuss course related topics.
The technical problem with the pictures of the blackboards has been solved and the overview is now up to date.
Contact information for student representatives is now provided under Resources.
From next week on you are welcome to join me for some taiji on wednesdays at 14:15, after the exercise session. We'll meet in front of Abel's house.
I will stick with Gamelin's book throughout the semester. However, if this book doesn't work for you, you can try:
- Visual complex analysis, by Nidham (more pictorial).
- Complex analysis in one variable by Narasimhan and Niegervelt (more advanced and slick).
- Complex analysis by Stein and Shakarchi (relates more to other parts of mathematics)
If you're looking for advice on how to study you can try the following book:
Lara Alcock, How to study as a mathematics major, Oxford University Press, 2013 (272 pages).
The first part discusses key concepts (such as proofs) for transitioning to "higher mathematics". The second part is about study skills (such as time management).
Here is a book on the "attention economy" that explains well how our brains work and how corporations profit from it. While we probably can't solve the problem, the book does provide clues to what can be done on a personal level. It explains the neural basis for motivation and reward, as compared with deep satisfaction.
Robert Lustig, The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains.
Lectures are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Exercises on Wednesdays. But the first week there is no exercise session.
To start the semester in optimal conditions you can freshen up your memories of complex numbers (eg polar representation) and Green's theorem.
Welcome to the introduction to complex analysis.
The course will follow more or less the same program as last autumn. You can see pictures of the blackboards from the lectures here. Syllabus is here. Some minor changes may occur.
The final exam will probably be nudged in content so as to include more proofs rather than calculations.