UofT 2nd year ECE advice?

[skuric]

Hey all, I know this is really early for this kind of question but I figured I may as well ask now since I've been wondering about it for a while...

I just finished 1st year ECE and I was wondering what I should expect from 2nd year. Things such as, which courses are difficult, which courses require a good 1st year foundation in order to do well etc.

ECE110 ended up being my highest mark (75 lol), but I am not confident with the material... I crammed like 1/2 of the material for circuits 1 week before the exam and I don't really think that I know the theory behind it all very well (I can do the computations and know what to do depending on the type of question, but explaining the concepts... not so much). Does this put me in a bad position for 2nd year? Or do they review the ECE stuff from 1st year well enough? Also I'm not strong in the E&M part of the course either and I hear that 2nd year E&M is very difficult :P

Any advice is appreciated... stuff you wish you knew before entering 2nd year, that kinda thing.

Thanks

[pitz]

I didn't go to UT, but I took the courses you're talking about. I didn't find 2nd year E&M to be particularly difficult; its pretty simple stuff, really, just applying formulas, and learning phasor diagrams. AC circuits, heck, even 3phase, is about as simple as it gets.

Really, don't worry too much. I almost flunked out of first year, and emerged from 2nd year with an average in the 80s. First year, at least for me, was a vertical learning curve (especially in PhysChem, where, I lacked the requisite mathematical sophistication, but otherwise, an awesome course to take!) (and other issues, like living away from home for the first time), second year was far more relaxed in comparison.

[TheFuteballer]

Second year is really really tough and by far the hardest of the 4 years IMO. However I was (and most others) were able to pull up their marks in second year somehow. You get used to the studying and start doing your properly.

I had a 62 average in first year and ended up with mid 70 average in 2nd year and now I'm in low 80's.

Just really try and keep up with the work and you should be okay.