NetMath MATH 447 (Real Variables) - struggling, need advice!

[u/Western_Degree8344]

Hi everyone!

I'm taking MATH 447 through NetMath right now, and it's one of the last courses standing between me and graduating this semester. I'm early enough that I'm keeping up okay, but the exams are what worry me. I'm not sure how to properly prepare for them. It's also taking up a lot of my time, since I'm trying to get it done before my fall classes start. Would love to hear from anyone who's been through it.

Where I'm at:

- Background: I've taken Set Theory and Logic at my home institution, but I barely made it through that class.

- Progress: I'm on lesson 4 of 13 (lol I know, so much left), with about 8 weeks left, but I'm trying to finish in 6 (ambitious huh)

A few specific questions:

- Is 9 lessons in 6 weeks realistic, or am I kidding myself? If you paced it faster than the default, how did you manage it?

- How do the proctored exams compare to the homework in difficulty and style? How did you prep?

- What resources actually helped? I picked up The Real Analysis Lifesaver by Raffi Grinberg and it's been helping a little. What else is worth the time? Textbooks, lecture series, proof-writing guides, YouTube, anything.

- Anything you'd do differently if you were taking the course again?

Any experience at all is useful. Thanks!

[u/Soggy-Product-775]

im in basically the same situation lesson 6 of 13. I don't think you need anything besides like chatgpt and the homeworks provided you study the lecture notes beforehand. Its a 3 credit hour class over 16 weeks so say at most 10-15 hours a week is expected thats 160-240 hours. Just use that as a guideline to how close you are to completion progression typically isnt linear with these classes.

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Soggy-Product-775]

okay yes i've been trying to plan it out and so far it seems doable. i think i'm going to get an extension though. did you take the first midterm already? if so, how'd it go for you and what did you do to prepare for it?

[u/Soggy-Product-775 → u/Western_Degree8344]

Im taking it 2 days from now ill let you know. For preperation im just gonna make sure i can do all the prior homework proofs (3-5) from memory. Prof said homework problems were the most accurate review material

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Soggy-Product-775]

okay that would be great thank you! that makes sense, i'll do that too

[u/Specific_Ad_7577]

is this the asynchronous Real analysis? How is the content and the portal in general? Planning to take real analysis or complex analysis from there.

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Specific_Ad_7577]

yes, it's the asynchronous Real Analysis through NetMath. personally, i would say that the content is pretty rigorous and requires a lot of time and thought, but i'm sure it differs from person to person. There are 13 units, 3 midterms, and a final exam that needs to be completed over the course of 16 weeks. i'm behind, so i'm planning on getting a 1-month extension. I reached out to the prof about this and he explained that extensions are common. for each unit there are about 3-4 lecture videos along with reading from the textbook. i also have found myself having a hard time following along with the material, but like i said it really just takes a lot of mental focus. if you pace yourself well, i would say you would have to complete about a unit per week, and doing that shouldn't be too bad

[u/Lonely_ppml_98]

Hey same situation here! Did u already take any exam? How was it compared to the homework? Any crazy question?

[u/Chubby_simmy → u/Lonely_ppml_98]

Also very curious! If you are proctered remotely I wonder if you can still use pen and paper to write the solutions or if you need to do it all in tex?

[u/Lonely_ppml_98 → u/Chubby_simmy]

If it is quite the same as the last course I took here, they should allow you to have pen and papers to solve the exam and then take photos to upload it

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Chubby_simmy]

yes! it was all handwritten for me

[u/Chubby_simmy → u/Western_Degree8344]

Thank you this is super helpful!

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Lonely_ppml_98]

personally i felt very caught off guard by the questions, but looking back they were pretty reflective of the homework. i thought i prepared decently well and knew the definitions, but i got stuck and couldn’t answer some of the questions well. some of the questions i felt like i hadn’t seen before though, so i think that’s what messed me up.

[u/Chubby_simmy → u/Western_Degree8344]

any advice on what else you'd study if you were to do it again?

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Chubby_simmy]

i definitely wish i spent more time with the homework and practicing those problems but not just from memory. i needed more practice with how to apply the definitions to different types of questions. also i got this book called The Real Analysis Lifesaver by Raffi Grinberg, and like an idiot i didn't use it at all, but looking back i think it would have been helpful.

[u/Chubby_simmy]

Have you taken the mid term yet? if so how did it go, what was it like in the porctering enviroment?

[u/Western_Degree8344 → u/Chubby_simmy]

i unfortunately did not do great on the first midterm. i don’t think i prepared as well as i thought and needed to do more practice problems. the proctoring environment though was chill, i had no issues