ECE 3209

This course will be one of the hardest - if not the hardest class - of your college career. Either deal with it or switch majors ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

With that out of the way here are some tips. First, don't get behind. I made the mistake of slacking on learning the second unit until the test on the first unit. I found myself an entire unit behind and in some very deep doo-doo. Second, Mona is a very bad lecturer - monotone, and basically derives equations all class (1.5h lecture / 1.5h lab). With that being said, the basics of ENM haven't changed in quite a while. The textbook is a great place to orient yourself, then tackle the homework. You can google all the answers to the HW very easily - don't. The HW problems are spitting images of the test, just saying. Overall, you will probably lose some sleep over this class, but remember, C's get degrees. Good luck!

Electromagnetic Fields is one of those classes that freaks you out at the beginning of the semester and leaves you with a great feeling of satisfaction after you successfully get through it. Professor Zebarjadi leaves you in good hands and really does go out of the way to modify the class to best help students out in getting a decent grade. The breakdown for our class was 12 A's, 15, B's, 8 C's, and 3 D's. Lectures help solidify some of the concepts, but they are basically a condensed recap of the textbook readings which for this class are a must. My advice for getting the best grade in this class would be to:

1. Read the assigned textbook chapters and make sure you actually understand it. I took detailed notes and sometimes I worked through the examples. Write questions that you have on the material and ask them in class.
2. Do the homework. The professor drops the 4 lowest homework grades so some people just didn't do the first 4 homeworks and proceeded to do poorly on the midterms. If you miss one, do it later (don't just look at the posted solutions)
3. When a midterm comes up, I found that the best way to prepare was to redo the homework problems and do the problems given in the recitations. Redoing the homework problems instead of doing extra problems that I thought were similar led to a much higher score on my third midterm compared to the second even though the class average was the same for both. Exam problems were VERY similar, if not verbatim to the homework and sometimes the recitation problems. Take that as you will.
4. If you have time, briefly re-read the textbook chapters and look through the examples right before a midterm and before the final.
5. Make sure that you take full advantage of your cheat sheet. Having a good one almost guarantees a higher score.

This class isn't easy, but it is very doable even without having taking Physics 2 (I didn't). Work through the problems, read the textbook, and you will do fine. Best of luck!