hey,

any opinions on this course? is it interesting? How difficult is it?

It was a bit of a hit and miss with this course. Last year there were 2 classes a week and a lab every other week. There was one midterm comprised of 80 multiple choice and and some short answer questions. The short answer questions required you to be VERY specific and the multiple choice questions were based almost entirely on the textbook. Most people would tell you that the textbook was everything in this course, without it you couldn't answer the multiple choice questions...which were based on random facts that you might pick up from the textbook in your readings. Each class covered essentially a new topic and therefore a new chapter, so its essential that you keep up with your readings, a total of 24 classes and 24 chapters were covered.

The final exam was fairly easy and I may stand corrected but I beleive it was worth 50%.

That being said, the material was interesting, the professor (Dr. Xu) was not too bad, a little hard to understand sometimes and would ramble. Labs were exceptionally easy and fun.

How much time was given to write the midterm?

I don't remember exactly but I think it was 1.5 hrs.

Oh wow, that doesn't give a lot of time at all :S But then again, it's all conceptual questions right? You either know it or you don't?

exactly, i dont remember being pressed for time, like you said you either know it or you dont, often they will allot 1 minute per MC question and its sufficient.