Review:
Carlin is a great guy, very very intelligent and very easy to talk to. Though he does speak softly and does confuse concepts at times, this class does not require a major understanding of the material. I received an A in this class without reading one page of the textbook (which wasn't even used), and simply showing up to every lab, doing what was required, taking good notes and making sure that the question sets were done properly. The final at the end is a huge portion of the class, but there are perks: twice along the way in the semester he offered chances for bonus points on the final, and I got 7 (others ranged from 1-8). Also, he does two major review sessions during class in a game-type format, of which the winner of both days receives a 100 on the final and an exemption from taking it. Furthermore, ALL FORMULAS are provided for you during the final, AND he lets you bring in an 8x11 sheet of paper on which you can write ANYTHING you want (I typed mine up single-spaced, 8 point font etc).

Truly, if you go to lab every week, partner up with some intelligent people and work hard, it is not difficult to get a 97 or a 98 lab average. Then, work with others on question sets. That way, once you get to the final, you will have such a high average that you would only need to get a 65 or a 70 on that final to get an A- in the course. That's what happened to me, and besides the weekly labs and occasional question sets, I hardly did any work for that A.

Workload:
Weekly labs that get more difficult as the semester progresses (but you get to work with others AND you get a good amount of help from Carlin and the TA), three or four question sets that you have ONE FULL WEEK to complete (and you can work with others on this too), but no actual assigned textbook reading (it's not even worth buying the textbook unless you intend to use it as reference for stuff that isn't clear in both the actual classroom explanation and a one-on-one explanation from Carlin outside of class - I would recommend trying to understand the material through either or both of those methods and use the textbook as a last resort.)

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