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.

FPMT0101 Basic Mathematics

Pre-requisite: FPEL0301/FPEL0302

Format: 2 lectures, 2 tutorials

Learning Outcomes

Students passing FPMT0101 (or the Placement Test) should be able to:

·          Describe the set of real numbers, all its subsets and their relationship.

·         Identify and use the arithmetic properties of subsets of integers, rational, irrational, and real numbers, including closure properties for the four basic arithmetic operations where applicable. 

·         Demonstrate an understanding of the exponent laws, and apply them to simplify expression and manipulate fractions, ratios, decimals, and percentages.

·         Understand measurements and conversion from one unit to another.

·         Simplify rational expressions and rationalize numerators or denominators.

·         Translate worded problems into mathematical expression and model simple real life problems with equations and inequalities. 

·         Solve linear equations, equations involving radicals, fractional expression and inequalities.

·         Use coordinate plane to solve algebraic and geometric problem, and understand geometric concepts such as equation of a circle, perpendicular, parallel, and tangent lines.

·         Use the three types of symmetry of an equation to sketch its graph.

·         Perform operations on polynomials and manipulate numerical and polynomial expressions and solve first degree equations.

·         Use the quadratic formula to find roots of a second ¬degree polynomial.

·          Demonstrate understanding of the definition of a function and its graph.

·          Understand transformations and combining of functions.

·         Know the relationship between degree and radian measure of an angle and find the length of a circular arc and the area of a sector. 

·         Understand trigonometric and circular functions and use the fundamental trigonometric identities in various problems. 

·         Solve a right angle triangles using angle of elevation and depression.

·         Apply knowledge of basic algebra and trigonometry in real life problems.

·         Use the law of sines and cosines to solve a triangle and real life problems.

For More Information …     

FPMT0103 Mathematics for Social Sciences

Pre-requisite: FPMT0101/Placement Test, FPEL0301/FPEL0302

Format: 2 lectures, 2 tutorials

Learning Outcomes

Students passing FPMT0103 [or Exit Test (Math for Social Sciences)] should be able to:

·          Demonstrate understanding of the definition of a function, its inverse and their graphs.

·         Solve two variables linear equations and inequalities and sketch their graph.

·          Interpret a series of three simultaneous inequalities of two variables, display them graphically and determine the solution set.

·         Solve quadratic, exponential, logarithmic equations, and inequalities.

·         Solve simple real life problems involving linear, quadratic, and exponential functions graphically and algebraically.

·         Determine the zeros and the maximum or minimum of a quadratic function, and solve related problems, including those arising from real world applications.

·         Sketch the graphs of a quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic functions.

·         Compare simple and compound interest and relate compound interest to exponential growth. 

·         Understand the inverse relationship between exponents and logarithms and use this relationship to solve related problems.

·          Explain the basic operations of matrices.

·          Solve a system of linear equations by row reduction of matrices and distinguish singular systems of equations.

·          Use Cramer’s rule to solve a system of three linear equations in three variables.

·          Decide if a matrix is invertible, and find the inverse of an invertible matrix. 

·         Understand basic concepts of descriptive statistics, mean, median, mode and summarize data into tables and simple graphs (bar charts, histogram, and pie chart). 

·         Understand basic probability concepts and compute the probability of simple events using tree diagrams and formulas for permutations and combinations.

·         [The Learning Outcomes 10 – 13, above, are additional learning outcomes specific to the SQU FP.]

For More Information …    

FPMT0105 Mathematics for Sciences

Pre-requisite: FPMT0101/Placement Test, FPEL0301/FPEL0302

Format: 2 lectures, 2 tutorials

Learning Outcomes

Students passing FPMT0105 [or Exit Test (Math for Sciences)] should be able to:

·         Demonstrate understanding of the definition of a function, its inverse and their graphs. 

·         Sketch the graphs of polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions.

·         Perform arithmetic operations on complex numbers.

·         Apply the fundamental theorem of algebra to find zeros of polynomials.

·         Define and manipulate exponential and logarithmic functions and solve problems arising from real life applications.

·         Understand the inverse relationship between exponents and logarithms functions and use this relationship to solve related problems.

·         Describe analytically the trigonometric and circular functions.

·         Demonstrate an understanding of trigonometric identities. 

·         Demonstrate an understanding of inverse trigonometric functions. 

·         Solve trigonometric equations.

·         Use appropriate software to interpret equations and graphs.

·         Understand basic concepts of descriptive statistics, mean, median, mode and summarize data into tables and simple graphs (bar charts, histogram, and pie chart).

·         Understand basic probability concepts and compute the probability of simple events using tree diagrams and formulas for permutations and combinations.

[Note: The Learning Outcomes 2, 3 and 4, above, are additional learning outcomes specific to the SQU FP.]

For More Information …