Dear students,

first of all, since there was an large majority of you who wanted to move the midterm date, we'll change the date to wednesday, november 23.
If you really can't come to the new date, you should notify me immediately.

Also, I wanted to thank those of you who spent some time filling in the early course evaluations (even the ones who had nasty comments about me...)

A few comments about your comments:
1. most people seem unhappy about the lenght and the difficulty of the problem sets. Actually, some of the CA's already told me about these complaints, and I thought the last couple of psets were a bit easier then the previous ones. But if you still think they are too long I can try to make them a even shorter (and still helpful for you to learn).
I ask all of you to tell me if you still find the problem sets too long (anyway, it's much easier and more efficient if you tell it to me directly or send me an email: no need to ask your CA's to tell me; I promise I won't put you in a black list if you do so :) ).

2. many of you also complained that I tend to rush at the end of class. I'll try not to do it anymore (even though sometimes I really want to finish a topic in order not to spend more time on it the next lecture!)

3. It seems not many people like the textbook. I have to confess that I also think sometimes it has very complicated arguments... To excuse me, I can just say that it's not very easy to find the perfect book, and this time I followed the advice of the people who tought this course before me.
Anyway, I think my lectures are pretty much self contained, so you can just follow my lecture notes and use the textbook as a side reading (or you can read any other textbook that you like better instead, for example Axler's book).

4. Finally (but most importantly) some of you said that they feel kind of lost and they can't follow what I say in class (and the office hours are not enough for them to answer all they questions).
Well, for this I can't help you unless you want me to help you!
When I incourage you in class to ask questions, I really mean it! (but for some reason not so many people ask questions in class...)
And if you are too shy to ask questions in class (or if you are completely lost and you don't even know which questions to ask), then I really urge you to come talk to me to my office: I am often in my office and I'll be happy to explain you any material you didn't understand, answer all your questions and clarify anything you didn't understand. As I told you at the beginnig of the course, you don't need to come only to my office hours, you can just come see if I am in my office (and if you want to meet me at a specific time, send me an email and I'll make sure I'll be there to meet you).
Also, you might find helpful viewing the lecture videos if you want to go again through a topic you didn't follow.

In the evaluations there were many other practical suggestions. I'll try to follow most (or at least some) of them.

Thanks again.
Sincerely,

Alberto