Admission requirements
This is a first-year, first-semester course for students of Informatics. The only prerequisite is any high school algebra and trigonometry. Prior knowledge of or exposure to calculus (mathematical analysis) is helpful but not essential.
Description
This course offers a foundational introduction to calculus, building on and extending high school pre-calculus topics. Students will study limits of functions and sequences, continuity, and differential calculus, with an emphasis on understanding and applying core concepts. Topics include the computation of limits, derivatives, and applications such as graph sketching and optimization.
Course objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, a student will be able to:
Perform basic operations with polynomials and rational functions
Compute limits of functions, sequences, and series.
Find critical and extremal points of a function
Find conditions for continuity and differentiability of functions
Sketch graphs of functions, including asymptotes, critical points, inflection points, identify domains of monotonicity
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of Instruction
Integrated lecture-seminar, twice a week.
The first 60 minutes will be dedicated to the discussion of new material, and in the last 30 minutes the students can work on exercises and pose questions.
Assessment method
Final exam will be written exam.
There will be 4–5 homework assignments and 3 online quizzes. Students can earn a bonus point on their exam grade by submitting homework and participating in the online quizzes. Together, the homework and quizzes contribute up to 10% as a bonus. The remaining 90% of the final grade is based on the final written exam.
The final grade is calculated as the maximum of the following two options: (i) the combined score of up to 10% bonus plus 90% from the exam, or (ii) 100% of the exam grade (if the student has no bonus points).
Grades of 5.4 or lower are rounded down to a 5, while grades of 5.5 or higher are rounded up to a 6. The final grade is capped at 10 and must be strictly higher than 5.5 to pass the course.
Bonus points earned during the same semester can also be applied to the retake exam. As a result, the percentage breakdown for the retake remains the same. Homework and quizzes are not compulsory and therefore do not have retake opportunities for them.
Reading list
Calculus, a complete course, 8th edition, Robert Adams & Christopher Essex, Ed. Pearson, Canada, ISBN-10 10321781074, ISBN-13 9780321781079
Both the 7th and 9th editions can also be used.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Dr. Rajat Hazra, r.s.hazra@math.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Evgeny Verbitskiy, evgeny@math.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.