Archived-Announcements-2012

From most recent to earliest

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• This anonymous comment was received from the course website:

Kevin,

Friday night's 4M midterm was too hard! More specifically, the 24 mark question was very unfair. It is material that was covered on Thursday - ONE day before the midterm! Its not fair to test us on this and make it worth 24 marks! Normally, our other profs give us at least a week to digest the material before it is covered on a midterm. Other than that, the question itself was tough and many of my colleagues also were confused by it. Basically, if we did not get this question, we automatically drop to 76%, not taking into account other mistakes.

Please - reconsider the marking allocation of this question !

The other thing - the midterm was way too long. I understand that you gave us extra time but 2 hours and 45 minutes is almost 3 hours - which is the duration of a final exam! This is not to be expected for a 15% midterm.

Those are some thoughts - I would appreciate your addressing them!

Thanks.

I appreciate and take any feedback seriously. I'm interested in whether this is one data point (1 student out of 80), or if these issues are of general concern. Feel free to message me via the course website to address the issues of whether question 3 was (a) unfair (b) confusing, (c) too soon; and lastly (d) whether the midterm was too long. I will discuss these in class on Tuesday.

In the mean time, please review the midterm solutions; I will take up question 3 in class on Tuesday. Please redo this question and hand it in at class on Tuesday morning as question 2 of assignment 4. You must do it on your own to maximize your learning. You may hand it in electronically if you cannot make it to class.

• Some background reading material regarding ultrafiltration has been posted.
• Based on the course evaluation feedback, there is now a discussion board available on the Avenue2Learn website. Please participate!
• Slides for 11 October class are available.
• Assignment 3 solutions are posted. Assignment 2 will be returned at class on Thursday, 11 October.
• An update has been posted regarding electronic submissions for assignments and the course project.
• Project topic assignments. More details about the project's scope will be posted after Thanksgiving. The project will involve sizing the unit and estimating it's operating costs.
• Clarification in question 1, assignment 3: please ignore the word "needle"; it is simply a rectangular object.
• Please note: the solutions to the assignment will be discussed in class on 9 October. Assignments MUST be handed in at the start of class.
• Course project selection is starting. It is mandatory to fill out this form before noon, 27 September. Also note that topics will generally be allocated on a first-reserved basis.