January 29, 2009

Humm. Last exam of the Jan! Finally exams are over. Today I had exam of Semiconductor Device Physics which went very bad and I am going to fail! Sound's bad but this is the truth. I am not worried for this result because I had only 2 choices either do not go for the exam of write the exam and fail. I decided to face the exam in place of running away from it and I did it. Even if I failed, I am not regret about it because I didn't put any time for this course.

Now the fun part! I bought a speaker set for me, so party! Its "CREATIVE INSPIRE A200". Again creative, I am loving it!

Here is the photo of my new speaker:

From Poptahof Noord

Remember, this system configuration is just for the photography, original configuration is little different which gives more comfort and better management of wires!

New speaker, means party! We listen many songs continuously and then I watch a movie named "DOR". Now, I have to sleep so that I can do something for Nick's meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow.

January 28, 2009

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!

January 21, 2009

This was yesterday! I slept very late in but didn't write the blog... and this is because I was little upset and confused, without any plan of the day. Yesterday, I had an oral exam for Methods and Algo. I was well prepared and acquired knowledge about almost all the content of the course; unfortunately I missed the grade due to presentation. I was supposed to read a research paper and present it. I was prepared with it but I having a completely new topic, I thought to explain this topic on the paper-sheet. Unlikely, professor was expecting a power point presentation and he cut my marks because of this.

Initially I though to retake the exam which will be in Feb/March, then as usually I start analyzing the ROI (Return On Investment) for this. And the result comes out that I have to spend at least a week to get more then 8. Since TU Delft does not give 10/10, I can get only 9. So, for just 1 grade, I have to put a week of effort and no any additional knowledge gain. Instead of retake, if I spend the same time on other exam then I can score same good grade along with the new knowledge! And my motivation of doing MS is gain knowledge and not the grade.

After coming out from the short term depression, I was full with energy to work on the coming task! And I am happy to gain confidence on myself.

And here we go with the good news of the day! I received contract paper for my work as Student Assistant with Professor Nick in TU Delft. This contract active from 23/Dec to 1/Sep, around 8 month. Unfortunately I have to pay TAX which might be ~40% and Health Insurance which is ~8%. Totally ~50% will be detected from the employer's end and I will get only remaining ~50%! Even this is good because I will be getting at least something.

At the end, the quote suited to me is: "Life is Unfair, Get Used to it!"

January 20, 2009

Tomorrow I have exam of Methods and Algorithms, so I spend almost full day for the preparation, had 2 discussion sessions with professor, modified assignment along with 1st test print etc...

Now I am going to sleep, but I have allotted only 2 hour for sleep if I want to perform decent in the exam. Sleeping more then 2 hour will directly impact on the preparation of the exam which will be reflected in result.

Nothing else for the day except exam of Methods and Algorithms.

January 13, 2009

13th January! Finally the most awaited date has arrived! This is the date on which our "Millenniour Professor" has decided to have our final Analog CMOS presentation. I worked with Saket in this project and Saket did most of the work in the design! Our design met all the specs except SNR and which is missed by only 0.8 dB! Even after meeting all the specs, I realize that something was missing. And looking into other group's presentation, I evaluated our project to be 8/10. Now, waiting for the final results to come, this will take probably 1-2 week.

After the CMOS presentation, I went to 17th Floor lab and decided to start on assignment of methods and algorithm for system design. I have read all the background knowledge needed for the assignment, but unfortunately MATLAB is not working properly on my system. So, I have to go to course lab tomorrow to finish the assignment.

Enough for the day.

January 12, 2009

Today was a good day. I have finished last chapter of "Synthesis and Optimization of Digital Circuit". Now I have to finish the assignment and go for the exam. Also, we have completed CMOS presentation slides which we are going to present tomorrow. So, next target is NoC Paper Writing. I have also planned to finish Methods and Algorithm exam next Monday. I will check it with professor tomorrow.

And yes, I have taken very strong decision to uninstall all the software which eats time. This is only for January (till exams). So initially I uninstalled Skype / Google Talk / Google Earth / Yahoo Messenger / Google SketchUp. Then I though to have Skype... downloaded and installed it. Now, I have only Skype but very few friends on it, so not much wastage of time. Also, I have decided not have long chat till exams over. Hope taking all these steps will help me in making exams better.

Its time to sleep now, I have to prepare myself for presentation tomorrow.