MAT3701/000 /3/2015

Tutorial Letter 000 /3/2015

Linear Algebra

MAT3701

Semesters 1 & 2

Department of Mathematical Sciences

MAT3701 Exam Preparation

BAR CODE

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Dear Student,

MAT3701 Exam Preparation

The following are some general guidelines and information to assist you with your final preparations
for the MAT3701 exam, assuming that you have already worked through all the study material.

1. It is important that you work through the assignments and worked solutions for the current semester
again, since we use these assignments to help you prepare for the exam. It is good practice to work
through a complete set of four assignments (two for each semester) for a given year, since we always
try to cover most of the important aspects of the syllabus during a given year. For this reason the
assignments and worked solutions of the previous years are made available under Additional Resources
on myUnisa.

2. Part of the SAQA requirements for a BSc degree with mathematics as a major is that students
should be able to work with theoretical concepts. In order to comply with this regulation, we would
often ask a theoretical question that was asked in one of your assignments and expand on it by
requiring you to prove some further properties. Of course, you should be able to apply the theorems
and definitions in the textbook, and solve theoretical type questions (and the best way to practise this
is to work through the theory in the textbook). Sometimes we also ask you to prove a simple result
based on a definition in order to test your understanding of the definition (an example of this is e.g.
Question 2(a) in the Oct/Nov 2013 exam where we test your understanding of T-invariance).

3. It is also good practice to work through old exam papers. The worked solutions to all the exam
papers on myUnisa appear under Additional Resources.

4. If you have not done so already, we suggest that you work through the worked examples in
the textbook and study guide, especially those that look a bit different to what you have already
encountered. It is useful to first cover the solution and see if you can do it on your own.

5. You will not be examined on the following parts in Friedberg, 4th edition:
• Systems of differential equations, pp. 273-274.
• Examples 4 and 5 and the application on Markov chains which follows after that, pp. 301-307.
• The whole of Section 6.8: Bilinear and quadratic forms, pp. 422-451.

We wish you all the best for the examination.

MAT3701 Lecturers