Maths

Important Notice

As preparation for the lectures in ECON61001 Econometric Methods, MSc students are expected to read and understand the material in Lecture Notes 2 (Matrices - 1) or in Lecture Slides 2, as part of Econ60901 PreSession Maths. The pdf files containing this material are

Media:Lecture 2.pdf

and

Media:L2_slide_ho.pdf

respectively.

Students are also expected to tackle the corresponding questions on Econ61001 Exercise Sheet 2, either on paper or online using Maple TA, as part of the PreSession Maths course. The link to this material is

Media:Xs2.pdf

Students on the MA program are welcome to try out this material, and test their understanding using Maple TA.

Using Maple TA

Maple T.A. is an easy-to-use web-based system for creating tests and assignments, and automatically assessing student responses and performance. The idea is that you can answer the questions at your leisure, and have them correctly graded by Maple TA. Once you have answered a question, the correct answers and/or sketch answers are immediately available. You can go back and attempt the same question as many times as you like.

Maple TA is located at

[1] http://place36.placementtester.com/manchester

Login with your registration number (first 7 digits only): the password is also your registration number. On the page that follows, you can click on MyProfile and then Password Update to change your password.

You should select the course

ECON60901 PreSession Maths

by clicking on the entry for this course. This will bring up a page of assignments: there is usually a delay whilst they are loaded. You can click on the assignment you want to do - the notation follows that in the exercise sheet. The assignments are organised as question groups, ExSheet 2 or ExSheet 2 Randomised Questions, or by individual question - a component of each of the question groups. Picking a question group means that you have to answer all the questions in that group before you can grade your answers. Picking an individual question enables you to grade your answers immediately.

When you click an an assignment, you are given choice between "Print assignment for off-line work" or "Work assignment on-line right now". If you choose to print, wait for the questions to be printed. When you have answered the questions, you can login and click on the assignment again, and choose the "Work ... online" option to enter your answers.

Usually, you are given information on the type of response (number, formula etc) you are expected to give. If not, a textual response is required. In general, it is better to show arithmetic operators (+,-,*./,^) explicitly in your answers. Use of brackets to make clear meaning is also encouraged: what exactly is meant by "1/x - 1" - is it (1/x) - 1 or 1/(x - 1)? Additional information about the entry of vectors and matrices in your answers is given in a separate document, although the instructions are repeated in the Exercise Sheet.

When you have finished one page of questions, click Next to go to the next part of the main question. You can also use the drop down menu of the Question item. When you have finished, click Grade and view details to see the marked version of your answers. This screen also contains a Comments section, which gives sketch answers. You can also click on Quit and Save, or on Print.

You can save your work and return to it later if you clicked on Quit and Save when doing the assignment, but before clicking on Grade. To return, simply find the assignment in the Class Homepage list, and click on it.

To inspect completed and marked assignments, start from the Assignments page by clicking on Class Homepage if necessary. Click on Gradebook, and select View Past Results. Select the assignment you want to inspect, click on Search, find the assignment in the list at the bottom of the page, and click on Details.

The questions on ExSheet 2 Randomised Questions are randomised in the sense that Maple TA generates the numbers, which are different every time the question is attempted. These questions are intended for additional practice, should this be required, or for revision. These "randomised" questions are sometimes easier than, and sometimes harder than, the corresponding Exercise Sheet questions. If you find one of these randomised questions to be to hard, simply click on the "Refresh" button at the top of the page to get another question.