Do the practice problems

It's important to follow along with the explanations in class, but the practice problems you will do on the slides do not reflect the material that will be on the tests. DO THE PRACTICE PROBLEMS HE POSTS; anything else is not worth your time (in the practice problems there will be questions which were not discussed in class but which you need to know, because they will be on the tests/quizzes). Oftentimes it's hard to understand what he's saying in class, because he often interrupts himself and goes off on tangents, but taking notes are important if you want to really get 100% on the tests. Books aren't used - you don't need to buy one - and while the slides are good to reference, they often contain mistakes because many teachers have collaborated on them, so if something seems wrong, it probably is; send a MIO or bring it up in class and a corrected version will be posted. There is a quiz almost every two weeks, so about 4-5 per semester... they're not worth too much, but it's still good to review for them, and they're helpful to evaluate your understanding of the basic concepts you were quizzed on. There are 3 tests on average and all of them are counted (the lowest mark is NOT discarded). There are about 12 questions per exam, and they oscillate between hard and moderate in terms of difficulty. Write your units EVERY TIME. Even while doing the calculations; it's not enough to just add them at the end. Significant figures and units are super important in this class, and you will lose points if they aren't accounted for. Nearly every week there will be a lab; reading the procedure beforehand is useful to save time, and if you have any questions during the labs the teacher is always available (usually circulating in the room). Print out the required data sheets beforehand or make a PDF that you can fill out during the experiment, because you'll be asked to submit a picture of your collected data at the end of the class. For full lab reports you'll generally have two weeks to complete them, and for labs that don't require a report (only data) you'll have about a weekend to work on it. There are no assignments, only the labs and practice problems (to do on your own time). Teacher is friendly and approachable, but a strict grader. If you feel you deserved a higher grade on a test or quiz, you can talk to him about it, and he will listen and might improve it if he finds your argument is valid. Teacher is usually available in person but has one day where he's available online (on Teams), so you can always ask him a question then and he'll try his best to help. He's pleasant as long as people don't bother him too much. Laptops are allowed in the class (only to take notes or open slides), but phones are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. He takes attendance, and arriving late is not tolerated (there is a three strikes and you're out policy).

Staying on top of the weekly quizzes is a must and will really benefit you in the long run. Also, participating in the class discussions will ensure that you are properly understanding the material and not just hearing it only to go home and be unable to solve anything.

Stay on top of your work, make sure that you do well on the weekly quizzes, don't have the mentality that it's just a quiz so it doesn't matter. They do and if you do well on those then reviewing for tests and the final will not be as bad. Ask your questions when you first get them, don't wait, you need to be sure you have a basic understanding of the material in order to do well at the later material. This also goes for labs, ask questions, get him to check your drawings, he will and let you know if its correct, if its not, he will tell you what is wrong with it for you to then make changes.

Stay organized, attend class, reread the notes after each class, do the suggested problems and ASK QUESTIONS. The suggested problems will help 99% of the time to ace the test, and the 1% is to thoroughly read the notes and understand the material. Memorization is quite easy the more you do the problems. There aren't many questions, (around 30 per chapter) and the teacher is always available to help.