[ShadowPlay]

Fall 2010 with Dr. Arain

Breakdown
- 4 Labs (assignments) x 5% = 20%
- Midterm = 20%
- Final exam = 60%

Dr. Arain gives you very good notes for the whole course at the beginning of the term, which is nice because it gives you the chance to review the material before the lectures and it also gives you an idea of the overall direction of the course.

I found the content very interesting, but I know there were people who would not agree. Dr. Arain has a soothing voice, which can be dangerous if you're not very interested in the content.

Work load for the course is not bad at all. There are 4 labs throughout the term, which are just assignments. You don't need to attend the lab period, but I found it very helpful to go. The labs are not difficult, but this is coming from some one who went to every one and made use of the resources provided. As with any course, you will do well if you put in the effort.

The midterm was fair. It had a combination of short answer, fill in the blank, and simple calculation questions similar to what you will see in the labs.

The final exam is my only complaint about the course. I dislike that it was weighted so heavily, but not much can be done about that. It was a very different format from the midterm. All questions were long answers/essay style questions and there was a lot of writing to be done in 2 hours. But Dr. Arain and your TA will likely warn you about this a lot as the exam approaches.

The text used when I took the course was Boundary Layer Climates by TR Oke. I found it useful for a few things on the lab and it is a good book on the subject, but reading the book as a supplement for lecture is not really necessary in my opinion.

were the assignments like presentations or term paper (something that required a lot of time to do) or could they be done during the lab period?

They were mostly excel based assignments and short answer type questions. For example, we were often given a data set and asked to graph it and then asked specific questions about trends and describing what is occurring. There were no presentations. You can probably get most of the assignments done during the lab period if you bring a laptop.

I just took this course in fall of 2013 and i have to say Dr Arain is one of the best professors in that he is extremely helpful. The exam and midterms are more than fair provided you study his notes. The textbook is a complete waste as all the important information from the book is in his notes. Furthermore, the notes are really detailed and you don't necessarily have to go to every class though it helps if you do as that way you don't have to go over all that stuff by yourself. Attendance is better as the content is large and may overwhelm oneself. the breakdown is such that there are three labs worth 10% each, more assignments per say but you do need to work hard on them and midterm is 20% while the exam 50%. its better to work really hard for labs since they are a huge part and people find the exam tedious as its long answers only (7 options and we do 5 of them- each worth 10 %). Its a great course if you put in the time.