Quiz 1 Information

You are not logged in.

Please Log In for full access to the web site.
Note that this link will take you to an external site (https://shimmer.mit.edu) to authenticate, and then you will be redirected back to this page.

1) Logistics

Quiz 1 will take place on Tuesday, March 3 from 2:05 to 3:55 p.m. (i.e., the regularly-scheduled class hours) in 50-340, which encompasses the majority of Walker Memorial's third floor.

  • The quiz covers content from Homework 3 and from lectures and recitations up to (and including) February 19.
  • The quiz will be administered on paper, so be sure to bring a pencil. (We'll have spare pencils on hand, but probably not enough for everyone.)
  • You may use one 8.5"-by-11.0" page (two sides) of handwritten notes.
  • To prepare for the quiz, we recommend that you review content from the relevant lectures, recitations, and homeworks; prepare your sheet of handwritten notes; and take the practice quizzes under authentic quiz conditions. (Print out a practice quiz and take it in a quiet environment where you can focus. Time yourself. Use only your handwritten notes as a reference.)

2) Problem-Solving Session

Our lab assistants will run a problem-solving session from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 1. (The room is yet to be determined.) The problem-solving session is more like a two-hour recitation than a two-hour lecture. Lab assistants will work through past quiz problems, emphasizing practical problem-solving strategies. The problem-solving session will not be recorded.

3) Studying

At a high level, here are some things ought to know for the quiz.

  • You should understand the "big idea" of Fourier series: representing a periodic signal as a sum of sinusoids or complex exponentials.
  • You should be able to curb the tedium of complex calculations using Euler's formula.
  • You should be able to determine Fourier series coefficients without computing integrals or sums when such calculations are unnecessary.
  • You should be able to eliminate tedious calculations by remembering common Fourier transform pairs and properties.
  • You should be able to apply geometric reasoning to sketch magnitude and phase plots.
  • You should understand how to sample continuous-time (CT) signals to generate discrete-time (DT) signals.
  • You should recognize when aliasing occurs, how aliasing "folds" frequencies in a signal, and (at a high level) how to prevent aliasing.

Notes

Practice Quizzes

We will post solutions to the practice quizzes by the weekend.

We aren't "hiding" old quizzes from you because we're going to put those questions on this year's quiz; rather, we've tried to provide recent quizzes which are most representative of the kinds of problem you might see on this year's quiz. We write new problems for each quiz.