Online Course Discussion Forum

Class Arrangements

 
 
Picture of Daniel Zhang
Class Arrangements
by Daniel Zhang - Friday, 30 August 2024, 5:02 PM
 

I've just been wondering...why do we have classes AFTER completing the work? For example, this week in Number Theory we were assigned HW from Chapters 6+7, but then after learning these two chapters we spend an hour and a half going over exactly the homework. We're not really learning anything from these classes then, right? We have to self-learn all the content from the chapters assigned and THEN we learn it again in class, wasting a lot of time. Wouldn't it be better to have the classes first, THEN have the corresponding homework assignments?  

 
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Re: Class Arrangements
by John Lensmire - Tuesday, 3 September 2024, 12:15 PM
 

Thanks for your feedback, it is good to hear different student's thoughts.

We typically like this format for the Intensive Course so we can cover the material faster over the 17 weeks (normally we would teach over 40 weeks in our year round class bundle). Hence, the self-study helps students learn most of the concepts, and then we can review any material or problems students have difficulty with during the live classes.

We do try to cover a few extra problems or extra ideas during the live classes when we can, and also we typically see that most students do benefit from reviewing the homework in class, either if they didn't get all the questions correct or if they answered the question in a different way (and seeing an alternative method is helpful).

The last 8 Weeks (for the 8 Week Prep) will be a little different, with us reviewing topics and then doing sample AMC problems (and a Mock Exam) as homework, so that will at least be a change of pace in the final bit of prep!

Again, thanks for the feedback!

Picture of Daniel Zhang
Re: Class Arrangements
by Daniel Zhang - Tuesday, 3 September 2024, 10:14 PM
 

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying! Have a great week :)