Satisfactory score on mathematics placement examination. This course is controlled by a departmental committee, whose members may or may not be teaching the course.
All sections use the same text, which is chosen by the committee.
The committee also writes a syllabus detailing which sections should be covered and how much time should be allotted to each. Exams, homework, and grading system are left to the instructor. This course promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills on a very narrow class of abstract problems. An ongoing battle is to encourage the student to document problem solutions with appropriate prose, mnemonic variable names and labeled diagrams. This eventually aids the student in communicating problem descriptions and solutions to others as well as in communicating about problems with the student's own self.