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Mathematics Courses
In the Mathematics Area of Foundation Programme (FP) at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), courses are offered at two levels: basic and advanced. Basic Mathematics is offered to those students who do not pass the Placement Test, while Advanced Mathematics is offered to those who do not pass the Exit Test. Furthermore, Advanced Mathematics has two separate streams: (i) Mathematics for Social Sciences and (ii) Mathematics for Sciences. Of these, “Mathematics for Social Sciences” is offered to the students admitted to the colleges of Arts & Social Sciences, Commerce & Economics, Education, and Law. The course, “Mathematics for Sciences” is offered to the colleges of Agriculture & Marine Sciences, Engineering, Medical & Health Sciences, Nursing, and Science. The medium of instruction of the courses is: Arabic for Arabic medium programmes, and English for English medium and bilingual programmes.
The objectives of the Mathematics courses are to ensure that the students are equipped with the mathematical understanding and skills necessary to meet the cognitive and practical requirements of degree programmes in a variety of disciplines.
The course learning outcomes are designed and categorized into the following three courses (the course ending with an odd integer indicates that the course is offered in English language, while the one ending with an even integer indicates that it is offered in Arabic language) :
FPMT0101 Basic Mathematics (English)
FPMT0102 Basic Mathematics (Arabic)
FPMT0103 Mathematics for Social Sciences (English)
FPMT0104 Mathematics for Social Sciences (Arabic)
FPMT0105 Mathematics for Sciences (English)
E-Learning with Moodle: The site http://moodle.squ.edu.om has the online course materials for the FP Mathematics courses. Students are advised to visit the site frequently as all course announcements will be done through Moodle. In addition to important announcements, the site has several useful materials such as practice questions, review material, summaries and plotting utilities.
Getting Help: Students are encouraged to visit the instructors and tutors who teach the course during their office hours. If the office hours are not suitable, they can be seen by appointment. The schedule of the course team office hours will be posted in Moodle.
Important Remarks:
Students are not allowed to use cellular phones in the classroom. They should turn off their phones before entering the class. Also, cellular phones are not allowed to be used as calculators or for any other purpose.
Course material is cumulative and the student may be tested on any material previously covered in the course in any quiz or test.
The final exam is comprehensive and will include all material covered in the course.
Examinations Guidelines
The Student should bring his/her SQU ID card, own pen, pencil, eraser, ruler and calculator.
The student should write his/her name, ID number and Section number on the front page of the answer paper.
Students should read carefully the instructions given in the question paper.
No books, lecture notes, dictionaries, electronic translators, graphing and programming calculators or mobile phones will be permitted in the exam room.
Sharing of calculators, erasers, pens, pencils, etc. will not be allowed.
Academic Dishonesty
All forms of academic dishonesty is prohibited and penalties are decided based on the University rules regulations. Academic dishonesty included (but not limited to) cheating, plagiarism, copying, collusion, falsification, signing for another person, etc. For more details please see Pages 36 and 37 of SQU Undergraduate Academic Regulations, 2005.
Punctuality
Students are required to attend their classes on time. Late attendance is not acceptable. The instructor has the right to refuse admission to latecomers.
General Study Skills
General Study Skills (GSS) is an area of FP with specific learning outcomes. The relevant learning outcomes of GSS are to be embedded into each of the three FP areas. With regard to the Mathematics courses, the students should be able to satisfy the following GSS learning outcomes (OAC, 2007):
1. Work in pairs or groups and participate accordingly i.e. take turns, initiate a discussion, interrupt appropriately, express an opinion.
2. Follow university policies on attendance and punctuality.
3. Bring required materials (pens, pencils, folder, etc) to class.
4. Work to imposed deadlines.
5. Create term planners and study schedules noting key dates/events.
6. Complete homework on time.
7. Continually revise one’s work.
8. Identify preferred study strategies based on learning styles.
9. Use the library system for finding, borrowing and returning library material.
10. Use a contents page and an index to locate information in a book.
11. Extract relevant information from a book or article using a battery of reading strategies (e.g. skimming, scanning, etc.).
12. Locate a book/journal in the library using the catalogue.
13. Find topic¬-related information in a book/journal in the library using the catalogue.
14. Find specific information using internet search engines and electronic resources.
15. Recall and define main concepts.
16. Utilize abbreviations and symbols.
17. Use English for notes in margins of student work and glossing vocabulary, for English-based courses.
18. Extract and record key information (the gist) from a written or spoken source based on own interpretation of information.
19. Use notes to create a summary.
20. Organize information to enable quick reference at a later date.
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