ELEG 309 Exam 1. Opinions

I thought the exam was fair. It was similar to the hw problems.
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I thought it was a pretty good exam. It definitely wasn't too easy, but it
wasn't impossible, either. A good in-between mix. The homework definitely
prepared me for it... I wasn't surpassed by any of the questions. It was
pretty much what I expected (not what I hoped for, of course. That would
have been 4 simple 5 minute questions ;) )
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Some random thoughts on the exam:

- All the concepts were very well covered in class, except the phase angle
derivation in #3.  While everyone in the class has had phasors in 205, even a
brief review of basic trig might've been helpful here (it wasn't that big a
deal though, since there was a homework problem much like it).

- The homework (and solutions) were extremely helpful in preparation for the
test.  There was an intimidating amount of material to cover, but having the
homework solutions kept the flying-blind aspect of studying to a minimum.
Much appreciated.

- I wish the two in-class reviews had been more comprehensive.  Both times,
most of the class time was taken up by one or two problems and a lot of other
concepts got skipped over.

Otherwise, the test seemed extremely fair without being too easy.
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I think the test today was very fair, and the homework problems certainly
were very useful in preparing for it.
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Some aspects of the exam were fair but others were pretty hard and from
talking to other people after the exam, I think the general consensus was
that it was too hard, especially problems 2 and 3. I think this came from
the fact the many of us, myself included, didn't exactly understand
everything about those two problems, I know that both were homework
problems but I think many of us did not totally understand the analysis of
these circuits.
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Though my grade will probably not reflect my thoughts, the test
was not bad at all.  It was very fair, a little tricky, but not too easy
nor too long.  I do not feel that our review session was the most
productive though.  We concentrated on one or two problems and they
weren't even on the exam.
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A lot better then I expected.  It was doable, if you knew exactly how to
do it.  Homework was great prep.  For me, class doesn't seem to do much
at any point, unless you have specific questions to ask.
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I think that the exam today was hard but not as hard as I thought it was
going to be.  I do wish that the formula sheet had the name of the circuit
that the equation belong to.  Like instead of just having K/(1+s/w) you
had K/(1+s/w) and that it was for low or high pass STC circuits.  Overall
the exam was very challenging but a tad bit to challenging.  Thank you for
your time.
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This test was pretty much what I expected and I felt prepared for it by
the homework. I needed a few more minutes to finish though so i guess it
was a bit long for me.
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The exam I thought was rather reasonable for the most part.  I'm still
kicking myself because after when i was discussing with my peers I
realized that I forgot to do the last part of problem 6 :(.  I guess the
fact that I knew how to do it excited me too much to realize that there
was more.  Anyway, I thought it was pretty good regardless of the fact that
I know I made tons of stupid mistakes
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Not too easy and not too hard.

The length was **PERFECT**...I was able to finish the ones that I knew
quickly and still had enough time to go back and take my time on the ones
that did not come to me right away.

To prepare for the test I re-did all the homework assignments, and I think
it helped a lot.  I expected there to be a lot regarding Bode plots, which
there wasn't, so I spent a lot of time making sure that I could
draw/interpret a Bode plot if I had to.  It wasn't necessary for this
exam, but it wasn't a complete waste time as I am sure that the topic will
crop up again either in this class or later on.
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the test was just like the homework assignments, so they were great for
preparation.  i think that is was a little long, because i did not
spend an large amount of time on each prob. and i still didn't get a chance to
finish number 3 which was a good chunk of the grade. (but i guess i should
have started with that problem)
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I feel the Homework prepared me greatly for the exam. I re-did every
problem and feel that I did really well.  I am actually eager to get my
grade back.
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The test overall was challenging, but conquerable if the homework was
done.  Specifically, I had trouble with phase difference and magnitude of
transfer functions.  This issue I feel was never really explained
throuroughly.
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I thought that the exam was hard, but not impossible.  It was fair, and it
very much resembeled the homework problems that were assigned.  The
homework was definately good preperation for the exam.
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After thinking about the first exam for sometime, I have
come to the following conclusions:

1) The exam was fair in that we were required to know all the subject matter ahead
of time (i.e. no strange new problems/formulations appeared on the exam). The exam
was covered in its entirety during the previous weeks in class.

2) The exam was fair in that there were not too many problems (and not too few).
We seemed to just have the right amount of time to finish. And the individual
problems were not overly lengthy.

3) The exam was unfair in that a few of the exam problems, most notably question
3, came straight for the homework set. I can see how some students would find this
appealing, especially those who just memorized the homework solutions, but to
those who spent some time actually trying to -understand- the material, this is
quite unfair. Now you may say that if they understood the material then they
should not have had a problem with the exam, but the question is whether the exam
was fair. In this regard, it was not because some students were better off by
studying in a way that is somewhat akin to cheating. They might be worse off in
the future as far as knowledge is concerned, but whereas their grade is...

In summary, the exam was overall fair, but with the slight problem of point 3. I
was expecting more of a challenge personally but I don't think my attitude is
shared with my classmates.