Students will work on assigned problems related to the lecture material each week. These will be discussed in the Tutorials, and a 15-minute quiz related to the previous week's tutorial questions will also be completed each week during the tutorial. The best 7 quiz marks out of a possible 11 marks will contribute 20% to the final grade. 

Satisfactory performance in quizzes is a hurdle requirement. You must obtain a mark of at least 40% in at least 7 out of the 11 scheduled quizzes to pass the unit. No additional quizzes will be offered for those who fail to meet this requirement.  

The final examination is a hurdle requirement. You must obtain a mark of at least 40% to pass the unit. If your mark in the final examination is between 30% and 39% inclusive then you will be a given a second and final chance to attain the required level of performance.

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable.  The draft timetable will be available approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and the final timetable approximately four weeks before the commencement of the examinations.  Exam timetables are available at http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/exam.

If you do not sit the final examination at the designated time due to documented illness or unavoidable disruption, you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Supplementary Examinations will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period.

It is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students.  All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the official examination period.

The final examination will include material from both halves of the unit, with more emphasis on the material taught in the final 6 weeks of the unit.

Laboratory work will begin in week 2 . Students must bring a laboratory notebook to the first class. Lab notes for each experiment will be provided in the lab. Each experiment is allotted two weeks for completion and you are expected to complete 5 experiments. 

You must keep a laboratory  notebook, in which you keep a record of all activities.  In addition you will be required to write a full report on one experiment of your choice.  Some notes about laboratory log books and report writing are included in an appendix at the end of this outline.

The purpose of the laboratory work is to expose you to a range of physical concepts and experimental techniques which spread beyond the coverage of the lectures.  In addition we hope that your ability to maintain a written record of your laboratory work and to write reports on your work will develop further.  To this end, the laboratory will be assessed in the following way:

(i) Your laboratory notebook will be marked each fortnight.  If it is less than satisfactory, it will be returned to you for correcting, and then re-marked.  All relevant calculations must be done, the appropriate graphs drawn, and uncertainties assessed where appropriate.

(ii) You are required to submit a full report on one two-week experiment of your choosing from the first three experiments that you have completed.  This report will be submitted in draft form initially.  It will be marked and returned to you with comments for its improvement.  When the report is resubmitted, your first attempt should also be handed in for comparison.  The mark awarded for the report will be that obtained in the second marking.  (However, if you obtain more than 7 out of 10 for the initial submission, then handing in the final version is optional.) This strategy gives you the opportunity to use the feedback from staff to help you develop professional report-writing skills before your work is finally graded.

The draft report is to be submitted by the end of week 9 with the final version by the beginning of week 13.

Permission may be granted for late submission of laboratory reports if the request for consideration is made prior to the due date.  Reports submitted late may be subject to a marking penalty of one-half mark (out of ten marks) for each working day that the report is late, unless a valid, extraordinary, substantiated reason for late submission is presented to the Unit Convenor.

An increasing number of students are choosing to submit laboratory reports in word-processed form.  This is a good procedure, however there are some points which need to be kept in mind.  If you are not accustomed to using a word processor, the process can take much longer than writing a report by hand.  In addition, problems with hardware can arise which cause delays and frustration.  As a general rule we are not sympathetic to late reports caused by computer faults. 

If you are planning to word-process your report it may also be advisable to bring a memory stick to the lab sessions.  Some experiments have data recorded on PCs which can be saved direct to your memory stick, then included in your report.

The relative weighting of the components of the laboratory assessment will be

Laboratory log book 14%

Report 6%

TOTAL 20%

Satisfactory completion of laboratories is a hurdle requirement. You must obtain a mark of at least 40% in the laboratory activities to pass the unit. If you miss or fail an activity, you must within two weeks arrange a new time to perform the activity. 

A mid-semester assignment based on the first 7 weeks of material in the unit will be announced during Week 6. It will be due in week 8 after the midsemester break.