Precalculus: the Mathematics of Numbers, Functions and Equations

I am new to MOOC and am both humbled and honoured that such esteemed professionals would provide a course like this, gratis, to anyone in the world with a computer and access to the internet. The team behind it should be justifiably proud of their efforts; chapeau!

The course covered an enormous amount of material, and this is where I feel it began to encounter difficulties. It appeared to me to be a course written by mathematicians FOR mathematicians. I felt it often tried to be mathematically accurate at the expense of the concept it was attempting to explain. It reminded of an analogy of a driving instructor teaching a learner how to drive on the Autostrada for the first time ... by also explaining how to disassemble the engine!

In my case I am a "mature" student; high school many decades in my past. I took the course as a vehicle to studies in engineering and therefore mathematics is a means to an end and not an end in itself. I absolutely loathed the "proofs", of which there were many. Overall I felt I've emerged from the course with rather a poor understanding of the coursework. I did not attempt the exams but estimate I would achieve a score of circa 20% had I attempted them; a most definite academic fail.

Was it a waste of my time? Most certainly not. The course providers have an infectious enthusiasm for the subject and I'm both pleased and surprised some of that enthusiasm has rubbed off, and doors to some very interesting mathematics have been revealed (if not opened). I'm keen to continue studies in this area.

This would be an excellent course for somebody who has covered this field previously and wants to prepare for university studies. For somebody who either hasn't studied this material before, or the studies were a long time ago, I feel it would be difficult to obtain a solid understanding of the material without significant external references.

For the course providers I feel the course could be improved by reducing the level of mathematical detail and instead focussing on the core concepts being taught. I felt many of the examples provided were unnecessarily complex and detracted from the teaching. In contrast, the quizzes at the end of each section were far more practical in that regard and by following the workings they often provided more of an insight into the topic than the preceding presentations.

I hope this comprehensive review has been somehow helpful and properly explains the rating provided.

Interesting course on Precalculus (Numbers, Functions, Equations and Inequalities) with a focus on depth rather than breadth. Proofs were touched on as well. The format was great as well, there were a few (5-7) concepts for each week's topic. Each concept had a video or two teaching the concept, then a few practices with solutions presented in the video and in a pdf document and finally a quiz at the end of each concept. There were also 1 or 2 discussions throughout each week, which were on problems of a higher level on the same topic which were very thought-provoking. There is a weekly quiz at the end as well and another for those who wish to earn a certificate. The lessons and solutions were presented clearly and I rather liked the humour of the professors. The professors and educators (who are Ph.D. students at the university) were rather prompt in their reply. Really enjoyed this course and learnt a lot, initially I thought I had already learnt it and was regretting it but very soon I realised that the course went much deeper than what I had learnt. It turned out to be very useful as many of the concepts and topic quickly appeared in some other examinable modules I was doing. Really appreciated this awesome course!

I have rated this course 5 stars, although there have been times when when I was so frustrated that that I would have said otherwise. The nature of the instruction seems to be very university oriented. By that I mean the lecture component which gives the "bare bones"of the subject matter, followed by the tutorial component. It is well over 50 years since I left high school after completing Year 11. Ironically, my performance in mathematics would be on a par now with where I fitted then. I understand that I can do mathematics, but not as a "core degree". Maybe major in languages with mathematics as a minor component,(??) because I am no "star". Having said that, I have to some extent discovered how I best learn Mathematics and have tried to put it into practice. After a break, I shall probably do the advanced component because there are things like natural (e based) logarithms that I am curious about. It has taken me 7 months to get this far but it was worth it. The lectures (to me) need to be more evenly progressed, but Alberto is very entertaining (probably due to the Italian accent to an Australian because we love to "take the Mickey"). Alberto's tutorials are extremely good.