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I did not think it was possible, but there IS something worse than math (well, it's still partly math, but not entirely).
Coming saturday I'm taking my third chance at an exam about communication technology. It's part math, part physics and completely impossible.
Stuff I should know is how a telephone works, how radio works, how a modem works, how the internet works, etc.
We have waves that travel at a certain frequency and there's noise on the channel and we can multiplex it and convert it to bytes using transducers, put it back on a wave using modulators, put a sinus function in there, magically apply cosinus, of course we need to remove redundancy, add line coding and channel coding... And of course there's all kinds of formulae to calculate stuff. AAAARGHHHH!!!
I scored a 4 twice (on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest score). It's 40 multiple choice questions and I answered 23 questions correctly (twice, at least I'm not un-learning), but I need 27 correct questions for a 5,5 (passing grade). Which makes this even more impossible.
Is anyone here working in the field? Or knows a bit about it?
Any tips that might make me see the light?
Why did I ever want to study again? 
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Sander Rossel wrote: Any tips that might make me see the light?
No problem for that, everyone is able too. However, if wath you really want to know are the laws of light propagation then you have to... 
Veni, vidi, vici.
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CPallini wrote: No problem for that, everyone is able too.
Stevie Wonder can't, just to name someone.
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Sander Rossel wrote: completely impossible
There is your problem, you are defeatest...If it were impossible, then nobody else would have passed it.
Sander Rossel wrote: It's 40 multiple choice questions
At least you have something to select from. MC is a lot easier that questions where you have to 'describe' or 'explain' or 'prove' and are simply presented with a blank space to start writing.
Get a hold of practice papers and do them and keep doing them. I found the practice papers for my degree really helped to give you a feeling of what was coming your way and what was expected.
If all else fails, just keep rehearsing the magic phrase...."You want fries with that?" 
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DaveAuld wrote: If it were impossible, then nobody else would have passed it.
There's a chance you'll get 40/40 correct with no prior knowledge about the subject. Luckily I know nothing about calculating chances so I'm just going to assume it could happen to me coming saturday 
DaveAuld wrote: At least you have something to select from. MC is a lot easier that questions where you have to 'describe' or 'explain' or 'prove' and are simply presented with a blank space to start writing.
I disagree. When I get to describe something I can usually write at least something down that gives me points.
With multiple choice it's either good or wrong. And I'm more wrong than not (in this case).
DaveAuld wrote: Get a hold of practice papers and do them and keep doing them.
I passed the two practice exams. They require only 20/40 correct answers though. Imagine my disappointment when I found out I needed 27/40 for the real exam 
I already hold a degree in art... Allright, maybe I better start rehearsing that phrase
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Sander Rossel wrote: I passed the two practice exams. They require only 20/40 correct answers though
Just because you passed the practice exams with 20/40, doesn't mean you stop doing them, you keep re-doing them until you get 40/40, that way the information is sticking in.
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There are a lot of websites available.
What specifically are you studying?
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I'm studying IT, but this course is about communications technology.
It's mostly math and physics that come together in hardware like modems, transmission towers, (mobile) phones, etc.
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Yep, a lot of that stuff! Thanks for the link 
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Sander Rossel wrote:
Why did I ever want to study again?
Inquisitive minds want to know.
Dave.
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After this course my inquisitive mind is a bit less inquisitive
Nah, I probably couldn't stop learning. I'll just stay away from math for awhile...
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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What is the school you are attending?
My degree is in electrical engineering and I took a communications course in school decades ago. The theory has not changed since then. It helped that I was into amateur radio because I knew what theory was likely to show up on tests, and what was used less often.
The communications exams I took had algebra and calculus. They were not typically multiple choice exams.
I don't know what to tell you other than to study the course material. I could give tips, but I might tell you to study things that aren't on the exam.
Do you have any specific questions?
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I'm studying at the Open University, so I'm not attending anything. I do all my study at home.
Being into amateur radio would've helped me a lot. There's a lot about (radio)waves, frequencies, transmissing, AM, FM, PM (Phase Modulation), ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying), FSK, PSK and QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation).
Unfortunately, I'm not technical at all. I know how to switch on a computer and that's where my hardware knowledge stops. That is also the reason I started to study. I want to know more about computers and technologies in general (like email, networks, internet, hardware, etc.).
I started programming in .NET a few years ago, but before that I had little knowledge of anything computer related. I was a gamer, so at least I knew how to install software and troubleshoot some minor problems (with the help of my good friend Google, of course).
I can be pretty into something, so I learned a lot about programming in a short time. I wrote my first article here on CP after four months and won a prize in the first year. But I still didn't know anything besides .NET (and some general programming knowledge), so I enrolled for some OU courses.
After seeing all the math I have to do I'm not so sure if I want it anymore (I can get into anything, except math). The only problem with this course is the math really.
I should write an article about math and treat it like a programming problem. If I did that I'd know more about math than my study ever required. My mind is not ready for it though...
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Sander Rossel wrote: Coming saturday I'm taking my third chance at an exam about communication technology.
Good luck for you.
You have one more day to get ready for the exam, and just an advice: Don't eat hard boiled eggs before exam.
Don't mind those people who say you're not HOT. At least you know you're COOL.
I'm not afraid of falling, I'm afraid of the sudden stop at the end of the fall! - Richard Andrew x64
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Karen Mitchelle wrote: Don't eat hard boiled eggs before exam
Thanks. Not sure why, but I never eat hard boiled eggs, so that will be allright.
It's an OO world.
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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What? No Viterbi encoding?
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"Receiving knowledge from an alien race", yep.
It's actually 27 mins, just saying...
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
modified 15-May-14 15:51pm.
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Quote:
It's actually 27 mins, just saying...
A fair point - it can be speeded up to 10 minutes with only a 45% loss of fidelity  - well within the published SLA
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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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On their 404 page, look at the title...
http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-it-feels/[^]
I think most of us have a mother or someone low tech that just loves to not let go of the one key when releasing shift after an exclamation mark!!!!!!!11
Jeremy Falcon
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LOL!
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
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