Not very pleasant day! Almost night-out for the DSP exam preparation and slept only for 2 hour. Still I was not well prepared and well confident. DSP was oral exam, which is very different and much difficult then any other kind of exam. Here is the little description about the oral exam pattern:
Duration of oral exam is usually 30 min in which 2 or 3 tasks are assigned. First, teach the processor about a topic. Second, explain the assignment / project. Third, explain the research paper. Second and third task may or may not be in the oral exam, this is complete depends on the course and professor's plan of evaluation. So, the first task is common and most difficult task. It goes like this; we have to pull a chit from the lottery which will decide my question. Once getting the question, I have 45 minute to prepare on the topic, this time I can take help from anything except friends! Once prepared, we have to meet the professor. Professor will be sitting on the chair and I have to be on the board and give exactly similar lecture which was given by the professor during the class hours. Professor will ask you question from your explanation and anything which you are missing in the explanation. So, you can say that professor is actually behaving like a student and raising any question a student can raise based on your presentation! Remember, he is not going to ask anything completely crazy, he expect you to have command on your presentation. Once this is done, you have to explain the research paper assign to you and your assignment / project report. Looks very easy? Right? Let me try to give you a glimpse of complication we have in this kind of assignment. Once you get the topic, you have only 45 minute to prepare, and you may get any topic from the entire course syllabus. It means, you must know every topic in the syllabus with depth detail so that you can present. It's not like a written exam where remembering a formula is enough to solve the problem. You should know and have ability to explain. Just like dowry, many more stuff comes with problem explanation, starting from the basic, then the problem, followed by some existing solutions and their limitation and finally the propose solution (which is your topic of presentation) with example! Humm... so you must prepare yourself for any topic of the course syllabus. If you pass, then you must be having knowledge about everything in course. This powerful idea shows excellent capability of this mode of evaluation.
Enough about the examination pattern, so I have mention that I was not confident about my preparation, it mean I was not well prepared on some of the topic, still I was knowing everything enough such that I can prepare myself in 45 minute. Well, I went for the exam and got a good topic. When I was presenting it, I started from the basic of topic and the plan was to evolve the problem from there and reach to the solution. Unfortunately the basic equation which I never though to be tough have puts me into trouble. I told to the professor that I will drive this basic equation, and I forgot the derivation of the question. I felt like the complete equation was erased from my mind just like shift + delete from the system! It was very unpleasant situation. Professor then helps me to derive the equation and then I proceed to the main problem and finish is very nicely.
So, every think goes well except the basic of the problem. At time during the presentation, I though that I am going to either fail the course or he will give me 6/10 only (just passing mark). Professor was good and I think he likes the rest of the presentation and grade me 8/10! At the end, I was sad due to my foolishness and happy that even with such a big trouble, I was able to make it 8.
Another exam is over and now its time to prepare for Semiconductor Device Physics. I haven't put even a single day for the preparation of this course. So I was not expecting to make any wonder in this exam, I just wanted to give an attempt for the exam. Another night-out!
Note: I am writing this on 29th because I was very busy doing preparation of exam!
