Out of Order: The Professor-Provided Cheat Sheet for Circuits Exam

Did I ever tell you about the guy I had for my first Active Circuits class at the University of Vermont (circa 1989)? He was a real wise guy. During those first few weeks our overloaded brains were bombarded with equations and Bode plots and parameter names and circuit configurations, so the anxiety level was very high. That was in conjunction with the same scenario in four or five other classes; you probably know of what I write. A typical class consisted of Professor Anderson beginning in the upper left corner of the chalk board and writing at Olympic speed as he progressed to the extreme lower right corner 50 minutes later, the whole time reciting everything from memory. Sometimes he would scrawl on a couple dozen transparencies on the overhead projector, instead.

After announcing the upcoming first test for the semester, he told the assembled students not to despair because a 'cheat sheet' would be allowed during the session. I fact, since he knew what would be on the test and what information would be needed, he would magnanimously provide the cheat sheet for us. It would, he assured us, contain all of the equations that we would need to be successful on the test. I didn't trust him, and as it turns out my skepticism was justified.

On the day of the exam, the good professor ceremoniously passed out the stapled-together exam papers after instructing us to not turn them over to begin until after he had distributed the cheat sheets. Anticipation filled the lecture hall as he passed out the wood pulp balm. Groans immediately began emanating from the students as they saw what was provided to them. Here is a good approximation of what was on the cheat sheet:

Posted July 25, 2014