So whats every one doing to prepare? I missed last class did alexander give any tips? I'm planning to study / condense my 6 pages of notes into 4 and thats about it...

4/30/2007 12:33:07 AM

I'll probably go over every sample test problem...and fit the "workings" of every one that I can into 4 pages.

[Edited on April 30, 2007 at 12:58 AM. Reason : ..]

4/30/2007 12:58:17 AM

the three finals that i've had with alexander have all been pretty straight forward, if not a little bit easier on the average. don't freak out too much.

4/30/2007 8:22:55 AM

there is very little new stuff since the last test. I would use that fourth to put the little bt of new stuff, then include corrected versions of stuff u did wrong on previous tests. this is assuming uve been using 1 page per each test and not 3 whole new ones just for 3

4/30/2007 4:49:25 PM

If someone could explain #2 and #3 (esp. #3 since it was a HW question too) from Test 3, I would be forever grateful to you. I cannot figure them out for the life of me. Thank you so much.

4/30/2007 11:45:24 PM

alexander definitely ripped me a new asshole on that test. a few of those questions looked nothing like the problem set /sample test questions.

btw how do you solve #6 the one where you got to find Ey Hx Hy.

i did not get it on test 3 and sure as hell did not get it when it reappeared on the exam

5/1/2007 11:20:58 AM

I got killed on that final as well.

I only know how to find Ey. They give you mag(E)...so just do sqrt(Ex^2 + Ey^2 + Ez^2) = mag(E).

5/1/2007 11:30:18 AM

|E|^2 = Ex^2 + Ey^2 + Ez^2

|H| = |E| / eta

You need two equations for H:

|H|^2 = Hx^2 + Hy^2 + Hz^2

E (dot product) H = 0 = ExHx + EyHy + EzHz

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 11:32 AM. Reason : ]

5/1/2007 11:32:25 AM

hmm, i must have overlook that part of the notes. nevermind it probably was not in the notes

Quote :

"COVERS: Notes Sets 1 - 17 Problem Sets 1 - 17 (All problems, not just Turn-Ins) Sample Test Question Sets 1 - 1"

i covered all the hwk probems and sample test questions but still didn't know how to do a few of those problems

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 11:56 AM. Reason : ;]

5/1/2007 11:38:45 AM

5/1/2007 6:47:39 PM

I think I made a decent stab at all of them...... but it was all based on so much conjecture I don't know. I did what A Tanzarian did for #5 and got numbers that worked. If you remind me what #2 and #3 where I"ll tell you what I think I did. How did you do the one that was about Power density? I end up doing some multiplcation of the e-field and the current density since the E-field is in volts/m and J is in A/m^2. Who knows though.

5/1/2007 7:51:05 PM

i think its safe to say i failed that test.

5/1/2007 9:19:22 PM

What about the one that was somthing like:

The gradient of the curl minus the divergence of the gradient??

I ended up doing a bunch of partial dervatives and ended up with something odd like -3y-20. I'm pretty sure that's wrong though.

5/1/2007 9:38:18 PM

^ yeah i could not figure out that one either.


Thanks Alexander for giving a bunch of bullshit questions on the final which ended up giving me a C in the class. I know you find it sexually gratifying to give out a bunch of shitty grades and chuckle in front of the class as you write down the class avg for a test which is below 70.



[Edited on May 3, 2007 at 6:38 PM. Reason : ;]

5/3/2007 6:38:18 PM

I didn't think I did that well on the final but I must have. Based on what I had going into the test I had to have < 80 to end up with the B I have now. I have no idea how that happened as that would have been my highest test grade all year for this class (I missed the first one, aka the easy one, due to illness).

5/3/2007 6:49:51 PM

How was it bullshit? Each question was straight from a previous exam, the homework, or the notes.

5/3/2007 7:59:43 PM

Quote :

"Each question was straight from a previous exam, the homework, or the notes."

just because the problems have been assigned at some point, doesn't mean theyve ever been worked out for us. hes the only professor i've had who doesn't provide any worked out solutions to any problems (homework solutions, prior exams, exam samples). that is if you don't count the overly simplistic examples and proofs in his notes.

if im wrong, someone show me where worked out solutions are.

5/3/2007 8:21:24 PM

I agree that it was difficult but I also think that it was fair considering we had 3 hours. It required some thinking outside the box, but you could figure out most of the stuff on the test if you understood the material.

5/3/2007 8:24:10 PM

Mines still IP, guess I'll see and get happy/mad in the morning

5/4/2007 12:14:02 AM

Quote :

"How was it bullshit? Each question was straight from a previous exam, the homework, or the notes. "

i disagree. i could not find a few of those problems anywhere notes/problem sets/sample test. he said we were responsible for all problem sets and sample test questions. well i upheld my end of the deal. my only mistake was not getting the solution for the problem from test 3 to solve for the Hx Hy.

5/4/2007 4:15:24 PM

i got a B

5/4/2007 7:57:33 PM

you bastard,

i got a A in ST371 so it evens out i guess

5/4/2007 8:13:17 PM

my 371 isn't in yet..so well see...

5/4/2007 10:14:40 PM

i hope you got an A in st371. that was the 3rd easiest class at state

5/5/2007 1:53:24 AM

i'm taking ECE402 now and we have to do a lot of crap using MATLAB to simulate signals and shit. I learned more about how to use MATLAB in the 1st lab session with Dr. Townsend's notes then I did in two fucking semester of taking Professor Alexander who loves giving out MATLAB problems.

Maybe if Alexander would have given a MATLAB tutorial i wouldn't have gotten a C in ECE 303

6/6/2007 2:19:40 PM

it always seemed that instead of teaching it he was more like "hey, lookit what matlab can do", then grading it, and form what i remember none of the matlabs seemed that bad

6/6/2007 2:40:23 PM