Believe it or not, semester one is over! A big congratulation to everyone who survived this semester. For me, this semester went incredibly fast and just like other things, it had its ups and downs but EEE didn’t let me down, not even once, and I can’t be happier with my choice of specialisation. In this post, I am going to discuss about:
- How I felt towards each paper and some tips on how to do well in each paper
- Some advice on how to have a successful second year
In my previous post I talked about what papers we are doing and the content of each paper. Now, let’s talk about my thoughts on each of these papers.
- ELECTENG 202 – Circuit and Systems: Let’s be honest here, I underestimated this paper or in other words I underestimated William Lee. At first, I thought it is impossible to set a hard 202 exam but William has a special ability to make a challenging exam. My advice for this paper would be to do as many practise questions as you can because it can really help you in the tests and exam and problem solving is an essential part of the learning process. The best way to learn is to solve a lot of problems. This course is the foundation on which most other courses in the Electrical Engineering curriculum rest. For this reason, put in as much effort as you can and study this course regularly.
- ELECTENG 210 – Electronics 1: “After all, an easy paper is not worth doing.” This quote from William will probably explain everything about this paper. In my opinion, the reason for this paper being a challenging one is they want us to be confident to analyse a circuit that we have never seen before. This requires us to understand and apply the knowledge that we have learnt from other courses, especially ELECTENG 202. I will give you one simple advice for this paper. Please do not procrastinate for this. Cramming will not work for this paper. People have tried cramming for this, but the outcome wasn’t satisfying.
- COMPSYS 201 – Fundamentals of Computer Engineering: I personally did not enjoy the first half of the paper which was about combinational and sequential circuits and learning VHDL. The second half is about microcontrollers and embedded systems and this was by far my favourite part of this course. Please try and attend the tutorial for this one, and attempt all the tutorial questions. It can really help you for the test and exam.
- ENGSCI 211 – Mathematical Modelling 2: It had the potential to be the best paper but the Data Analysis part ruined it. You can think of this paper as the big brother of MM1. Try and do as much problems in the course book as you can and study the course book thoroughly.
Some tips from me:
- At some point, you might doubt why you have chosen EEE as your specialisation. For example, you might be stuck on a 210 assignment and think to yourself why haven’t you chosen Civil or Chemmat (something completely irrelevant to EEE) as your specialisation. Don’t let these thoughts to distract you. Trust yourself and your choice and be proud to be a member of EEE. Yes, EEE is a very challenging degree but it’s worth the challenge.
- Don’t be afraid to contact your lecturers and ask them questions. We have great lectures at Engineering Faculty and ECE Department and they are always happy to help us.
- Try and stay on top of everything and do not procrastinate. Some people have survived the first year by procrastinating, unfortunately you are very unlikely to survive EEE if you get behind.
Also, if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask us. We’re here to help Part I students make the right choice for next year and we are more than happy to answer any questions you have.
Until next time…
Parsa