Tutorials will start in week 2. Students will work on assigned problems related to the lecture material each week. These will be discussed in the tutorials, and a short 10-minute quiz related to the previous week's questions will also be completed each week during the tutorials. Quizzes will start in week 3 for a total of 11 quizzes.

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.

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.

The final examination is a hurdle requirement. You must obtain a mark of at least 40% in the final exam to be eligible to pass the unit. If your mark in the final examination is between 30% and 39% inclusive, you may be a given a second and final chance to attain the required level of performance; the mark awarded for the second exam towards your final unit mark will be capped at 40%, and you will be allowed to sit the second exam only if this mark would be sufficient to pass the unit overall. 

If you receive special consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after results are released. Please see FSE101 in iLearn for dates. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application. Approved applicants will receive an individual notification one week prior to the exam with the exact date and time of their supplementary examination. Second chance exams for hurdle assessments will also be scheduled in this period.

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 will be posted on iLearn.

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 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.

If you are planning to word-process your report (optional) 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 each individual laboratory assessment task (i.e. for each of the lab book reports AND for the full report) to pass the unit. If you miss or fail an activity, you must within two weeks arrange a new time to perform the activity. 

You will be given one assignment in the first half of the unit which is intended to further develop your understanding of the unit topics. While we encourage you to discuss the assignment problems with your colleagues, you must submit your own original work. 

In the second half of the course, you will be required to read material before class and discuss with your colleagues using the Online-platform Perusall.

Perusall helps you master readings faster, understand the material better, and get more out of your classes. To achieve this goal, you will be collaboratively annotating assigned pre-readings with others in your class. The help you’ll get and provide your classmates will get you past confusions quickly and will make the process more fun. While you read, you’ll receive rapid answers to your questions, help others resolve their questions (which also helps you learn), and advise the lecturer how to make class time most productive. You can start a new annotation thread in Perusall by highlighting text, asking a question, or posting a comment; you can also add a reply or comment to an existing thread. Each thread is like a chat with one or more members of your class, and it happens in real time. Your goals in annotating each reading assignment are to stimulate discussion by posting good questions or comments and to help others by answering their questions.

Each weekly reading assignment (weeks 7 - 12) will be posted on Monday. You will be marked on the annotations you submit before the Thursday lecture each week. Your final score will be based on the overall quality and quantity of your annotations.