Exam Review – LAFF: Linear Algebra, Foundations to Frontiers
An usual sunday of December. God’s resting day, (sadly, not mine). Christmas trees are
already settled down, and Michael Buble already sings “Let it snow” (a me ricorda natale solo perche da noi viene utilizzato nello spot di una poltrona per 2 , che qui in Italia e piu tradizione quello che aprire i regali alla vigilia, sono almeno 20 anni che ce lo becchiamo ad ogni natale, se lo tolgono dal palinsenso rischiamo l’ammutinamento del cenone della vigilia), but here we are, as usual, speaking of one of my exams. Today, it’s LAFF time!
Linear Algebra – Foundation to Frontier it’s a free MOOC findable on Edx done by UT Austin, and probably the best MOOC of linear algebra in the entire web. The course is 12 weeks long, with 3 exams (2 midterms and 1 final).
The course
Let me first start saying that this is one of the best MOOCS i’ve done in my entire life. This course is so well built, it’s terrific. The amount of work spent by Professor Van de Geijn to built this course creates a wonderfull MOOC on linear algebra, which is easy to understand, but not to master, very catching and interesting, with many interesting explanations (and usually, every week has several enrichments) of all the topics covered in the course. The course, as previously said, is more or less 12 weeks long, but i managed to finish it in something like 9, due to the fact that i’ve many exams to finish right now. The topics covered are the same as a standard linear algebra course done in every university (from vectors, to matrices, from PA=LU factorizations, to invertions, to approximations, reaching, at the end of the course, eigenvalues and eigenvectors), and they’re done, IMO, very well. As a usual Edx course, every week covers some topic, with lectures and homeworks. During all the course, i’ve took more than 130 pages of nodes, which isn’t bad!
The Lectures
Professor Van de Geijn is really awesome. The lectures are, in fact, easy to understand for everyone with a basic knowledge of math a geometry. His speaking skills are great, not boring and most of the times, really interesting and catching. Also, all the lectures are from 2 to 12 minutes long, which is important to keep focus on the subject. Moreover, his voice is very melodic and easy to listen to, which is always nice! All the lectures are also related to a pdf file which contains a different kind of explanation of the topic (very useful for me during the eigenvalue/vector one), all for free.
The Exercises & The Exams
Another important point of the course are the exercises and the exams. As previously said, the course offers a lot of exercises, useful for a greater understanding of the subject covered in the topic (for example, inversion, or factorization), which i’ve mostly done by hand. During all the course can be found a lot of programming assignment, to solve the problem using the matlab software (i’ve done only some of them), provided also for free. The exercises are distinguished in theoretical and practical, and are sometimes difficult to solve.
The exams are related to a set of topics covered in the previous n weeks (where usually n = 3), and are useful for the training and a further understanding of the subject. All of them are good.
Note: during all the exams, i’ve tried (obviously) to solve the problems, but the points i’ve earned in the exams are “true”, that means i’ve done the exercises on paper and simply transfered the results from paper to the html page, without cheating
A recap
I really loved this course and i’ve tried to mastered the course and the subject during the 2 passed months. The course, sadly, doesn’t release a certificate, but my score is a 89%, which is (if i’ right) something like an A (you can see my score here). My vote for this course is probably (at least) 9 outta 10. Really a great course, thanks Edx for this opportunity
Stay tuned for more reviews!
already settled down, and Michael Buble already sings “Let it snow” (a me ricorda natale solo perche da noi viene utilizzato nello spot di una poltrona per 2 , che qui in Italia e piu tradizione quello che aprire i regali alla vigilia, sono almeno 20 anni che ce lo becchiamo ad ogni natale, se lo tolgono dal palinsenso rischiamo l’ammutinamento del cenone della vigilia), but here we are, as usual, speaking of one of my exams. Today, it’s LAFF time!
Linear Algebra – Foundation to Frontier it’s a free MOOC findable on Edx done by UT Austin, and probably the best MOOC of linear algebra in the entire web. The course is 12 weeks long, with 3 exams (2 midterms and 1 final).
The course
Let me first start saying that this is one of the best MOOCS i’ve done in my entire life. This course is so well built, it’s terrific. The amount of work spent by Professor Van de Geijn to built this course creates a wonderfull MOOC on linear algebra, which is easy to understand, but not to master, very catching and interesting, with many interesting explanations (and usually, every week has several enrichments) of all the topics covered in the course. The course, as previously said, is more or less 12 weeks long, but i managed to finish it in something like 9, due to the fact that i’ve many exams to finish right now. The topics covered are the same as a standard linear algebra course done in every university (from vectors, to matrices, from PA=LU factorizations, to invertions, to approximations, reaching, at the end of the course, eigenvalues and eigenvectors), and they’re done, IMO, very well. As a usual Edx course, every week covers some topic, with lectures and homeworks. During all the course, i’ve took more than 130 pages of nodes, which isn’t bad!
The Lectures
Professor Van de Geijn is really awesome. The lectures are, in fact, easy to understand for everyone with a basic knowledge of math a geometry. His speaking skills are great, not boring and most of the times, really interesting and catching. Also, all the lectures are from 2 to 12 minutes long, which is important to keep focus on the subject. Moreover, his voice is very melodic and easy to listen to, which is always nice! All the lectures are also related to a pdf file which contains a different kind of explanation of the topic (very useful for me during the eigenvalue/vector one), all for free.
The Exercises & The Exams
Another important point of the course are the exercises and the exams. As previously said, the course offers a lot of exercises, useful for a greater understanding of the subject covered in the topic (for example, inversion, or factorization), which i’ve mostly done by hand. During all the course can be found a lot of programming assignment, to solve the problem using the matlab software (i’ve done only some of them), provided also for free. The exercises are distinguished in theoretical and practical, and are sometimes difficult to solve.
The exams are related to a set of topics covered in the previous n weeks (where usually n = 3), and are useful for the training and a further understanding of the subject. All of them are good.
Note: during all the exams, i’ve tried (obviously) to solve the problems, but the points i’ve earned in the exams are “true”, that means i’ve done the exercises on paper and simply transfered the results from paper to the html page, without cheating
A recap
I really loved this course and i’ve tried to mastered the course and the subject during the 2 passed months. The course, sadly, doesn’t release a certificate, but my score is a 89%, which is (if i’ right) something like an A (you can see my score here). My vote for this course is probably (at least) 9 outta 10. Really a great course, thanks Edx for this opportunity
Stay tuned for more reviews!
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