COURSE PAGE:    http://www.math.msu.edu/~magyar/Math482

OFFICE HOURS: Wells Hall D-326 Mon, Wed, Fri 10−11 and after each class. Also Thu afternoon by appointment.

LECTURE: Mon, Wed, Fri 11:30−12:20, Wells A-136.

TEXTS:  Most daily HW assignments will include a Notes section with writeups of lectures or references to the following texts, most with free downloads.

• Herbert Wilf, Generatingfunctionology, 2nd ed., free here.
• Harris, Hirst, and Mossinghoff, Combinatorics and graph theory, 2nd ed., free from the MSU Library here or here. 
• Richard Stanley, Enumerative Combinatorics I, 2nd ed., here or here. 

GRADES: Based on:

Tentative Grade Scale:   ≥90% = 4.0 ,   ≥85% = 3.5 ,   ≥ 80% = 3.0 ,   ≥75% = 2.5 ,   ≥70 = 2.0 ,   ≥ 60 = 1.0.

QUIZZES: First 5 minutes of most classes, with questions based on the previous lecture's homework problems. I will assume you have done the problems, so that you can do a similar quiz problem quickly.

There will be 30 to 40 quizzes, each counting 3 or 4 course points. Missed quizzes will count as zero, and I do not normally give makeups. However, I will add 8 points free (out of 150) to the quiz total to allow for a couple of absences.

I urge you to do the HW carefully to prepare for the quizzes. Students sometimes think they can skip quizzes and cram for the exams, but the quiz grades collectively count as much as the Final, and also they usually track exam grades closely. If you fail several quizzes, you are headed for failing the course, and should arrange with me to get help.

MIDTERM EXAM:  Tentatively Fri Feb 21, in class. No makeup will be given unless you make arrangements beforethe test.

FINAL EXAM:  Mon Apr 28, 10:00am-12:00 noon in our usual classroom.

DAILY HOMEWORK: I will not collect homework unless it is specifically marked Hand-In. However, all the problems are essential to the course, and solving them is the crucial step in learning. Quiz and test problems will be difficult to impossible unless you have already done the corresponding homework problem.

Daily assignments will be listed in the Homework section, with solutions. Each problem you give up on is a lost opportunity to learn: only look at the solution after a serious effort. If you need the solutions for most of the problems, you should arrange with me to get help.

Extra Credit problems will add to your Quiz/HW score.

To repeat: the key to success in this course is to solve (not just read solutions to) all the problems on the daily HW. You cannot learn mathematics by watching it any more than you can learn to play a sport: you must practice it yourself.