MA1101R Linear Algebra 1

Module Description
This module is a first course in linear algebra. Fundamental concepts of linear algebra will be introduced and investigated in the context of the Euclidean spaces R^n. Proofs of results will be presented in the concrete setting. Students are expected to acquire computational facitilies and geometric intuition with regard to vectors and matrices. Some applications will be presented. Major topics: Systems of linear equations, matrices, determinants, Euclidean spaces, linear combinations and linear span, subspaces, linear independence, bases and dimension, rank of a matrix, inner products, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization, linear transformations between Euclidean spaces, applications.

Topics

- Linear Systems and Gaussian Elimination

- Matrices

- Vector Spaces
- Vector Spaces Associated with Matrices

- Orthogonality

- Diagonalization

- Linear Transformation

This is actually one of the most important modules to take if you are a mathematics (higher level linear algebra mods), statistics (linear regression, etc) or computer science student. Please study this module as well as you can.

First few chapters will be quite simple, but it gets abstract very fast from then on. Beware!

Workload

Two two-hours lecture

This module is covered by different lecturers every semester. I took it under Dr Ng Kah Loon in semester one. Usually this module will be taught in a huge LT like LT27 due to the number of students.  I suggest sitting nearer to the centre because it is hard to hear the lecturer with so many people chit-chatting at the back. Dr Ng is pretty persistent when it comes to keeping the LT quiet, so he will refuse to start the class if it is still too noisy.

Lectures are webcasted. 

This is usually the case when the number of students taking a certain module is high enough. You will most likely need the webcast whether you attend the lectures or not because this module has a high learning curve. You will probably not catch everything during the lecture.

Book is compulsory. 

This book was written by Dr Ng Kah Loon himself and two other people. You can literally use it as your lecture notes because the slides will follow extremely close to it. I don't think it's a must to buy the newest edition. 

Weekly one-hour tutorial

Tutorials are taken directly from the textbook (another reason to get the book). Tutorials are not easy so prepare to spend more time on it. :/

Two or three lab sessions? (I am not too sure of the lab frequencies but it is not a lot)

You will learn basic Matlab. There is a lab component in CA so try to learn this well.

Assessment (AY11/12 Sem 1)

10% Lab (Using Matlab to solve certain questions.)

20% Mid terms (Open-ended) 

70% Finals (Open-ended)

Personal

I obtained 27/40 for mid terms which is considered above average since the mean is like 23-24 i think. I think I didn't do well enough for finals.

If you pay enough attention and keep up with the lecture notes and tutorials, this module should not be too difficult. In finals, most of the questions are considered do-able except for a few proving questions.

This module will appear intimating at first but please do not give up.  

Extra notes to readers: I have past year papers and lecture notes. If anyone is interested, download the files from my Dropbox.

If you want to know more about the modules I have taken, you may refer to this list.