‘ju:femaiz

Second time I’ve been able to write under this exact heading. My last set of exams are on at the moment, and I’m extremely thankful that one of the four is over. Electrical Drive Systems (ELEC9231) is not one that I’d wish on my worst enemy. To any other UNSW EE+T students - if Rahman is taking it next year, don’t bother with it! Anyhow, onto the subjects…

ELEC9226 - Electrical Building Services

Friday 11th October

Well, this one was an open book exam, so it’s a weird one to prepare for. I mainly tabbed the notes I had (A4 ring binder full) and went through assignment questions and tutorial problems. Nothing really terrible. Get to the exam and one question was on something that was not covered at all in the notes. Doh! Anyhow, tried to bluff my way through. Not too worried about this course, came in with decent marks and think I went ok.

ELEC9231 - Electrical Drive Systems

Thursday 17th October

My most hated subject. It’s not so much the content (well, ok, it is pretty dry content) but it’s more a certain lecturer and the assessment schedule. For a postgraduate coursework course, we had a single groupwork assignment worth 20% of our total mark using a second rate program that none of us had any experience with and assumed knowledge for parts of the assignment never mentioned in the course outline. Great start to the assessments. The remaining 80% was reserved for the final examination. Thankfully this wasn’t as hard as it could have been, but on the other hand, many of the questions were more difficult than previous years. I think I may escape this subject by the skin of my teeth, depending on my marks for the assignment.

SOLA9005 - Advanced Semiconductor Devices

Monday 21st October

I’m really not sure of this exam. A/Prof Armin Aberle sets pretty tough exams if you don’t know all the content thoroughly enough to create essays with. I’m coming into this with ~20/30 marks already (not my greatest by a longshot - especially considering I though my presentation went quite well, which evidently it did not). This subject is more an ‘interest’ course for me, so it’s not imperative that I get an HD or D in it (though that’d be lovely). Passing would be nice.

ELEC9201 - Electricity Industry Planning and Economics

Thursday 24th October

My favourite course of the semester really. Deals with the market system of the electricity industry and how this impacts on the planning approach. It’s given me a big eye opener into long term economic theories, political interference and many other aspects of the industry that I’ll be working in come February of 2006. Not sure where I stand for this subject either. Been averaging 90% in the small assignments, though would like to know my marks for presentation and report. Exam’s worth 60%, and based on the sister subject I undertook last year, A/Prof Outhred does make a mean exam…

After the Exams

I’m going to Europe! Before starting full time work (becoming a ‘valued member of society’ so to speak) I’ve decided to spend my savings and head out overseas for a month to have some fun. So to do this I’ll still be working at the good old Kmart store I’ve been at for far too long up until Christmas. Then Christmas/Boxing day with the family for celebrations and then - at 515pm on 27th of December I’m off to Paris. A month and six days till I have to be back in Paris to come home, I’ll be backpacking around Europe, meeting up with some friends over there and having some fun. Camera will be in tow, and I’ll try and get shots up whenever I can (flickr account of course). Then back in February to start the next chapter of my life - Graduate Engineer at EnergyAustralia. Awesome!