Fall Semester Exam Review, Part 1: Fill & Download for Free

I’ve thought about answering this question for a while now, and I’ve never come up with a nice, pithy answer, but let’s give it a try anyway. Of course, the big disclaimer up front is that this answer is very much a personal one, and that different people have different experiences. I don’t know if there is a good general answer.As background and points of comparison, I’ve done all of my post-high school education at MIT, so I don’t necessarily have a good sense of what things are like outside of the “MIT bubble,” other than what people tell me, and some short stints working elsewhere. Also, my graduate education was in planetary science (master’s) and aerospace engineering (PhD), so this will be very STEM focused, but in fairness, so is MIT.I did a one-year master’s in planetary science after doing a minor in the field during undergrad. I think my experience was unusual in a number of ways.Master’s degrees in the school of science are very uncommon, and I believe this one is the only explicitly offered master’s in the school of science at MIT (others come from dropping out of a PhD).My primary advisor was a senior lecturer, rather than a professor. She still did plenty of research, but I believe her primary job at MIT was technically teaching rather than research. This also meant that I was the only graduate student she was advising, and I got a lot of attention. Towards the end we were meeting every single day. Most folks are lucky to get once a week.I had to form a thesis committee and defend my thesis, which is unusual for a master’s. The department has so few master’s students that they just told us to follow the PhD handbook on a compressed timeline (and they’d be less strict about evaluating our work).I was fully funded, originally through a TA-ship, but then I got a fellowship (unusual for a master’s student), but I TA’d anyway because the department needed someone to help out. Technically, I did the teaching practically for free (they paid me a couple dollars each week for some administrative reason).That year was a lot of work. I was taking two classes a semester, working on my thesis, and TA’ing an astronomy class each semester. I kind of look back and wonder how I managed. Work was something like 9AM–4PM, and then typically 9PM to midnight as well, except for the nights when I was teaching (then it’d be 7PM to 2AM for the second part). Weekend work probably totaled about 8–10 hours across Saturday/Sunday. That year was probably the hardest I’ve ever worked. I worked 18-hour days the entirety of spring break running tests on my code and writing my thesis.It was kind of a lonely experience. Unlike in undergrad, I didn’t really work with people on homework or projects anymore, and the fact that I spent a lot of nights in the library or at the observatory meant that I probably didn’t meet as many people as I otherwise would have as a first year.But, it was done. My thesis was probably 90% of what I wanted it to be, but I couldn’t get a last crucial bit working. I had set out to contribute something to science, and as far as that went, I’m fairly certain I failed. I got a lot out of it, but I’m not sure I really contributed much.I took a month off between my master’s and my PhD. One of my advisors asked me what I was going to do during that month, and I told him I’d go home and sleep. He said I should travel a bit, because I wouldn’t be getting a vacation for a while during my PhD. So I went to Iceland for a week.Of all my time at MIT, I would say that the PhD was, in many ways, the easiest part, which I understand, is also kind of unusual. I had a couple things going for me:I had a project starting out, and most of a summer to just focus on that. A lot of people spend a bunch of time (often a year or more) trying to figure out a project. I was already at MIT before I started my PhD (in a different department), so I had talked with my (then future) PhD advisor about what I’d be doing, and so I hit the ground running as soon as I started in July.I was used to doing research, the process of assembling a course plan and a thesis committee, and having a heavy workload. In a lot of ways, the greatest benefit I got from my master’s was a compressed run-through of doing a PhD.I had great advisors. One of my labmates saw my name on a paper draft along with my two initial research advisors and noted that I had won the advisor lottery. I agreed with him.Funding wasn’t an issue. AeroAstro doesn’t technically guarantee funding to grad students, but it’s been a number of years since anybody had any serious funding-related issues.This part was much more relaxed than my master’s. I had a steady research project. I wasn’t teaching for most of the semesters (though I did TA two semesters and teach a weekly high school program for one). The lab environment was supportive and friendly (not that it wasn’t before). And frankly, I was very lucky to be in a pretty niche field (machine learning + exoskeletons… the AeroAstro bit is misleading in my case) where as long as the thing I was building kind of worked, I’d be able to do interesting experiments with it.I also had a lot of help in the form of undergrads who were either working directly with me, or working on related research with my advisor. Practically all of them contributed significant amounts of work to papers that are either out already, or are still in the works. Some classes were easy, some were hard, and I’m very fortunate that my research never really got stuck for long periods of time. And on the whole, I had more time to hang out with people. Long work hours in the evenings were rare now, and late afternoon naps were common. I picked up ceramics and a bit of drawing on the side, and started played Dungeons and Dragons like a true nerd. I continued working for the admissions office giving campus tours.I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was certainly not as difficult of a time as before (including undergrad). I made some mistakes in the way I approached my projects, especially early on, out of ignorance, but that’s pretty typical, and over time I got more confident in judging my own work (because most everyone starts out not knowing what “good research” looks like). Qualifying exams were a bit stressful (the department has a non-trivial failure rate for these) and I made the questionable decision of helping run the MIT Mystery Hunt the week before my exams (with all the requisite prep the fall semester). Somewhat surprisingly, things continued to work out.Two and a half years into the PhD, I asked my committee if I could defend at the end of the following semester. They asked me why I thought I should be allowed to defend, and I told them that I thought I had just about met the standard they set out for me initially (3-ish journal papers), since I had one paper published, one ready to submit, one that would be ready in a few months, a well-reviewed conference presentation, and a few co-authored works. They agreed, and I started converting my thesis proposal document into a thesis.There were few particularly late nights working during my final semester. Job hunting was somewhat stressful, mostly because I was doing it all in the semester I was graduating, but again, my professors were very helpful in this regard as well.Printing and handing in my thesis was mildly exciting. Defending my thesis was pretty fun. Unbeknownst to my committee, I had given my labmates thesis bingo cards for the defense. One of them won a t-shirt from it. Overall, it was a good time, and now they tell me I’m some kind of doctor, which (perhaps unfortunately) means that some people think I’m supposed to know what I’m doing. The smart ones (or the ones who have done a PhD) will realize that this is often quite untrue.

TL; DRThe experience of doing COMMAS could fall anywhere between getting-enlightened and wow-I-love-doing-this to why-the-fuck-I-came-here . As you can see, this is an entire spectrum of responses which you might get, depending upon whom you ask. I, personally, found myself in the positive side of this spectrum. There were a number of reasons why I enjoyed doing COMMAS, but to bring things into perspective, I would focus on each individual aspect which I think might be critical to the reader-Course DifficultyWhat COMMAS promised vs How it actually wasCOMMAS is a highly theoretical course involving new mathematical and programming concepts which you might have not studied in your bachelor’s degree in domain of mechanical/civil or automobile engineering. The ultimate goal of COMMAS, according to me, is to equip you with enough theoretical understanding about computational mechanics of structures, that you could pursue an academic career path through a PhD degree or work effectively/efficiently in any simulation based industry. Both of the above career choices requires a deep knowledge of computational mechanics, which COMMAS strives to offer.Before coming to COMMAS, I did a thorough research on it’s course modules, their contents and kind of stuff which I might face during the course. Thus, I was at least mentally prepared for what was about to come. In fact, I was looking forward to gain deeper knowledge of computational mechanics. I can say, that COMMAS was almost the way I expected it to be - teaching you finite element modelling from the basics, material modelling, structural modelling etc. This, however, was not the case with every course participant.Few students came to COMMAS with an expectation of a normal post graduate degree course in mechanical engineering, without any prior thorough review of it’s course modules, and without a concrete decision whether this is exactly what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, few students left the course after first semester. Partly, because they didn’t had any background in advanced solid mechanics, programming or higher engineering mathematics and partly because the amount of workload was too much and they scored not so motivating grades in first semester. Further, few students had completely different expectation from the course, and being honest to themselves, they decided to pursue other suitable MS course. All these facts are not to demotivate you, it’s just an indication that one should make a wise decision before coming to COMMAS.What I found ChallengingCOMMAS is all about computational mechanics, where at the end you need to convert almost all theoretical concepts you learn in the topic into some kind of computer code. Coming from a non-CS background, with only basic exposure to programming skills, it was a challenge sailing through home assignments, class exercises and exam problems where they test not only your grasp on theory but also how elegantly you implement it into a computer code. The goal is to make you fit for writing your own linear/non-linear solver, finite elements, elastic/inelastic material models, etc. which requires a certain style of coding, which COMMAS will make you grasp in those 2 years. If you have good object-oriented programming skills, life will be much easier for you. However, even if you don’t have any experience, don’t worry. You will get decent time to learn basics through self study, the way I did it in my case.What other Students found ChallengingIt won’t be fair to speak on behalf of all the participants, but as far as I judged based upon my interaction with fellow students, it’s really a challenge how you manage your time between - classes, part-time job(s), German language course (if you are doing any), assignments, self-study and some free personal time for yourself (although, that concept is fictional in COMMAS :P). Apart from managing studies in general, course content difficulty could also be an issue sometime. But, there are always fellow students, teaching assistants around you, who could help you understanding the topic and make you feel more confident. So, be honest to yourself in doing your class exercises, home assignments and attending lectures, you will not face any trouble in your pursuit of COMMAS!LecturesCOMMAS lectures are given mostly by a Professor who is leading a Research Institute. But, when Professors are busy in their Research work, any PostDoc. candidate or some other junior Professor might also take up the responsibility of giving classroom lectures. In my opinion, it’s quite important not to miss your lectures, because the way a Professor explains any concept in class, you won’t find that in any text book. Moreover, classroom lecture is the best place to clear your doubts, by asking questions. I experienced that Professor-Student interaction was highly encouraged, which motivated students to engage better in the class. Every Professor has it’s own style of teaching, some would give you notes on Projector screen and explain material side by side with the help of some examples. Other Professors would distribute the Lecture Notes in printed form at the start of lecture and then they will start explaining stuff directly on the board, so you spend more time in grasping the concepts and don’t spend too much time copying the material. In that approach, Professor might take help of other media, like showing some MAPLE code, simulation videos, pictures, etc. I found the second technique more effective, as I was able to listen more to what the Professor was saying, took some extra notes when needed, marked things that might be important for exam, and got enough time to ask questions. Throughout your COMMAS journey, you will get all kinds of lecture techniques. In some topics, due to to the sheer amount of material to be taught in class, instructor won’t have the luxury to teach random topics directly on board, thus, they will give you classroom notes, with some discussion and explanation. More detailed discussion you could do in their office hours. At the end of each Semester, you as a student will get an opportunity to rate the course by filling up a feedback form. There you could express your views about the course and also give improvement suggestions. The results of the feedback form will then be shared with the entire class on the last lecture, which also sometimes become a platform to share a good laugh with the Professor. Specially when you see comments from students like - “Professor xxx is God!” or when the answer to the question “What did you found best about the course?” is “The beautiful Teaching Assistant!”ExercisesEvery course in COMMAS involves some kind of exercise class, where you will learn to apply concepts you learned in class to theoretical or practical problems. These exercises are commonly given by a PhD or PostDoc. candidate from the institute organizing the lecture.Every Faculty tries to keep the exercises synchronized with class room lectures, so that you learn to apply classroom material faster. Exercises are an excellent opportunity to dig deep into the topic by asking more questions about the material, which you couldn’t ask during the lecture. Moreover, exercises gives you an overview about the questions that might come on the final exam.At the end, you should experiment, be creative, try out as many what-if scenarios by yourself and extend your knowledge basis more than whats covered in lecture, which is useful to deepen your understanding of the topic and also helps in exams sometimes.ExaminationsExperience of taking examinations in COMMAS was new for me, as compared to undergraduate studies in my home country India. Since there are many research institutes who contributes towards COMMAS, each institute has it’s own style of conducting exams. However, there is a common trend among most of the institutes. During the semester, each course participant has to submit 3 (or 4) home assignments, depending upon the institute (there aren’t any fix rules for that, every institute has it’s own style). A student is allowed to sit in the final exam only if he/she has at least 2 (or 3) approved home assignments. Home assignments are build upon the content which is being covered in lectures. They involve some amount of programming, derivations, interpretation and analysis of sample problems which tests fundamental concepts of the topic. Since the difficulty level is different for everyone, I found most of the home assignments doable without significant brain damage! In fact, you could always sit down and discuss home assignment problems with your class mates. It often helps to get a third eye view to the problem, sometimes we get to know alternative ways to approach the issue. But avoid just copying them from your friend and submitting. In that case you might be able to make it till exam room, but won’t be able to go further than that.Some institutes go through the conventional way of closed book exams, where you are not allowed to take any material to the exam room. In most of the closed book exams, you are allowed to carry 1–2 pages (A-4 sheets) of cheat sheets, where you can write as many useful formulae, equations, anything you think could be useful for the exam. The idea is, Professors here don’t want to burden you with remembering those long equations, tables and graphs, they are more interested to check your concepts. Thus, you don’t need to spend hours cramming stuff, rather you should practice concepts and execute them in exams using your cheat sheets, if you are allowed to take along.Since Professors themselves are busy in their research, taking classes or other academic work, they won’t set your question paper. Mostly, the question papers are designed by one or the other PhD students in the institute, who might also be taking classroom exercises for the lecture or is responsible for correcting your home assignments. In contrast to what we experienced back home, the questions in exam won’t be copied in any way from previous year’s questions, rather it would be the matter of PhD student’s creativity and innovation in coming up with new questions. They will check whether you understood the material covered in class through lot of conceptual True-False questions, application of concepts onto practical problems, derivations and calculations. Unlike many other universities, there isn’t any official collection of previous year’s COMMAS papers maintained by any institute.Schedule for first semester exams is mostly decided by the COMMAS administration, because in first semester there are only compulsory modules which are same for the entire class. From second semester on wards, elective courses comes in, and their exam schedules are decided based upon mutual agreement between students and the institute giving any particular elective course. This is normally done to avoid any clashes in exams between multiple elective courses conducted by different institutes.Normally, students get sufficient time in between exams to prepare. If you follow your exercises and home assignments sincerely, you won’t need too much time at the end for the preparations. You could use the time to revise important concepts, solve some practice problems and prepare your cheat sheets. On an average, there might be anywhere between 2 to 4 days in between two exams, which I found optimum to keep up the exam mood, too long gap could also work as a disadvantage.InfrastructureAlmost all the institutes associated with COMMAS have their own libraries with significant number of books useful for your studies and research. Each institute has some kind of computer lab or work stations which are loaded with basic computational tools which you might need for your research like MATLAB, LS-DYNA, ANSYS, ABAQUS, MAPLE etc. Once you start doing your Student Job or Research Thesis at any of these institutes, you could get access to their infrastructure on a regular basis. To get the clearances to labs, libraries you have to get approval from institute secretary. Apart from computational facilities from each institute, there is a separate Computer Lab dedicated only for COMMAS students. The lab is usually open during the classroom lectures or exercises when there is some amount of simulation or programming required. However, you could discuss with COMMAS administration about the weekly free opening hours, irrespective of the lectures.Student JobsWorking while you study is a practical way to earn some quick money, which gives you financial freedom as well as an opportunity to integrate into German working culture. There are multiple student job options while you are in COMMAS and getting a decent student job is no tough nut to crack. Depending upon your interest, you could go for aStudent Technical Assistant Job in University or Industry (HiWi)Administrative Job in UniversityOther Miscellaneous Jobs - Working in Restaurants, Pubs, Hotels, etc.If you are interested in technical topics related to COMMAS, you have some programming skills or bring experience in any commercial FEM code, you can find a good Student Technical Assistant Job at any one of the many Research Institutes which are giving lectures for COMMAS. Most of these Institutes have PhD and Post Doctoral candidates, who often hire students to assist in their Research. In my opinion, it’s the best way to get to know a particular topic in detail, which in many cases also give ideas for prospective master’s and eventually a PhD thesis, if your are interested to take an academic career after finishing COMMAS. In addition to that, it’s a good way to build your connections in University, which might be helpful later when you look for a Job or a PhD position.As there are many students in University who are looking for a job, some institutes invite job applications and make a decision based upon your credentials. Although your technical skills and prior relevant experience plays an important role, some institutes lay huge emphasis on your COMMAS first semester grades. In fact, some reputed Institutes would refuse to offer you any Job in first semester. Thus, if you have very good grades in your first semester in certain subjects, institutes associated to those subjects will themselves give you a job offer, or at least send an invitation for an interview. So, it is very important to focus on your studies in first semester in COMMAS. Your hard-work in getting good grades will go a long way.Coming to the financial aspects - while working in any of the university institutes, whether technical or administrative job, you can expect to earn anywhere around 10 Euros per Hour. The money you get is of course more, if you work as a student assistant in an Industry, which could be somewhere around 15 Euros per Hour. Getting a student assistant Job in an Industry is hugely dependent upon your German language skills. Because there are a number of Automotive industries in and around Stuttgart, you can try your luck in getting a student job there. There is an official restriction on how many number of hours you can work as an international student, which I guess is 180 half days (up to 4 hours in a Day) or 90 full Days (between 4 and 8 hours in a Day). How many hours you will work per month can be decided based upon mutual agreement with your employer and the work contract can be made accordingly. It’s quite normal to have work contract initially for 2–3 months, which could be extended further, if both parties are satisfied.Ideal time to start working on any student job while studying in COMMAS would be from second semester on-wards. Of course you can start from first semester itself, if you can manage the study load of 9 Modules in first semester, and you think that you can still score good marks. Because I have hardly seen-heard-read anyone doing that, in my opinion it would be better to not risk your first semester grades buy running after student jobs. Moreover, after first semester, you would already have an idea, which topics interests you and what kind of student job you would like to do. Thus, focus purely on your studies while you are in first semester, and towards the end of your first semester you can start looking for a suitable student job in University, in Industry, or in both. As long as you don’t exceed the total allowed number of days per year, you can work in as many institutes/industries as you practically can.During my studies, I started working as a student technical assistant at Institute of Structural Mechanics from second semester on wards and worked there for almost an Year on a 20 Hours/Month Working contract. Parallely, I was also working as a student assistant at Daimler AG, also for almost a year on a 40 Hours/Month Working contract. It was an enriching experience to work while I was studying. It gave me immense opportunity to have a steep learning curve and at the same time make connections in industry and academia.Career PerspectivesAfter finishing COMMAS, you are expected to have following skills -Good fundamentals of linear and non-linear finite element technologyYou should be able to write your own material models, finite elements, linear or basic non-linear solversYou understand what algorithms are working behind commercial FE codes like LS-DYNA, ANSYS, ABAQUS etc.You can create your own simulation processes, analyse simulation results and provide technical reasoning behind underlying phenomenon.With all these qualities, you can opt for an academic career through a PhD program either at University or at some Company. Both have their own pros and cons. I would suggest you to do your own research before making any call.From industrial point of view, you could build a career as either a CAE Analyst or work in Software development side. If you are a programming person, then you can try finding a Job at big commercial FE codes manufacturers like LS-DYNA (LSTC), Altair (Radioss), CD-Adapco, ANSYS, ABAQUS, etc. However, if you are more problem oriented person and want to use your theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems, build new processes and help in product development, then working as a CAE analyst at any of OEMs (Daimler, Porsche, BMW, Audi, Opel, Volvo, Hilti, Airbus, Bosch etc.) or Medium scale companies (DYNAmore, CADFEM, Tecosim, etc.) would be suggested.Finally, based upon my experiences of interacting with my batch-mates, seniors, juniors and alumni working in Industry, I would suggest that you should -Do COMMAS WhenYou are passionate about what you do, hard working, eager to learn new conceptsYou have prior knowledge of Solid Mechanics, Engineering MathsYou are interested in ProgrammingYou want to build industrial career in field of Structural SimulationsYou want an academic career in computational mechanics or associated fieldsNOT Do COMMAS WhenNot interested in Programming and don’t want to learn either. You might somehow finish the course without it, but it will be a tough time for you.Not interested to learn German language. Seriously, your chances of getting a Job diminishes exponentially, if you don’t know the language and are not interested to learn it either. Make use of those 2 years to speak decent amount of German. It will make Job search later easier.Have no idea what course is about, and just want to do a Master course in Europe because hey, my friend from bachelor’s degree is also going there, we’ll both have fun together!You are homesick, because it might be quite an emotional roller coaster ride for some students, considering that one has to live far away from family and at the same time manage the work load of studies, jobs, etc.Few Useful TipsWhat I stated above is purely my own personal opinion, and need not be always true like an identity. There might be exceptions, and should not be misunderstood with the general trend. As stated before, you might get a completely negative response from someone who had tough time sailing through COMMAS. At the end, you have to make your view and proceed further. Good Luck!

This is my first year taking AP classes, so I had no idea what to expect.What I expected from my scores:Chemistry: 5I had Chemistry spring semester. The class wasn't as hard as expected. Our teacher used old AP test questions for our tests and I normally got mid Bs to low A's. To prepare, I went to her review sessions and did practice problems.Physics 1: 2I had Physics fall semester. This class was the first class where I was truly didn't understand the material. I somehow scraped by with an A but all the tests had a square root curve (After the curve I had a 88 test average, so before the curve that is around a 77 average). I didn't really study for this one as I knew it was a lost cause. The night before, I did a few practice problems, read my notes, amd called it a day.Spanish: 4-5I took Spanish 4 fall semester and AP Spanish Spring Semester. This class was my easiest AP class. I usually did well on the free response and speaking portions but struggled with multiple choice. I didn't study as we always practiced in class. The exam wasn't terribly difficult. The room had a few audio problems which made listening difficult. After the exam, I realized I talked about the wrong thing in my speaking portion so I knew getting a 5 would be a long shot.World History: 3I had this class fall semester. Our teacher was in our class for about 12 weeks and did the first 2 1/2 units. Our class learned the last few units in 3 weeks. Needless to say, I wasn't prepared. About 3 weeks before the exam, I watched and tooked notes on Morgan AP Teacher video reviews on all the units. Each video was 1-2 hours and most units had 2 videos. There were 11 videos in total. I prepared the most for this exam. The MC part of the exam was easy as it focused more on connections rather than facts. For the free-response section, I just wrote down all I knew. In class, I never wrote a DBQ, LEQ, or SAQ, so I didn't know how to format them and what college board was looking for.My actual scores:I'm surprised by World History. I am disappointed about Spanish, but I already came to terms with the possibility of a 4 after I took the exam.