To: Students considering the extra help session.


The extra course has been resolved completely. It will be called: EE 379K.

Because of the lateness in resolving this, the registrar's office is willing to allow a student to enroll in this course and to drop another course (if you wish to make room for it) any time before the deadline. The deadline is Thursday, September 19, 2002, at 5pm. Talk with an advisor in ENS 135 to find details on dropping a course.

That means any student in EITHER section (Professor Patt's or Professor Ambler's) is eligible to enroll in this course. The course is strictly to help students who feel they are not sufficiently ready to handle 306.

If you are in this situation, you can attend either the afternoon session or the evening session on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The meeting times are posted at

http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~patt/02f.306/discussion.html.

The course will carry the number EE 379K. It is offered for three units credit. The only grades given will be pass/fail; that is, there will be no letter grades. The course will not count toward your degree. However, it will count toward the number of hours you are taking this semester.

Passing 379K will be based strictly on whether or not you give enough attention to it. You will not be graded on how quickly or how well you master the material. You will pass 379K with a grade of "credit" only on effort. The objective of 379K is to help you do well in EE 306. That is, you will pass 379K if you show you are trying. You will fail 379K only if you blow it off.

This course is intended only for students who really do need the extra help and would be well served by dropping one of their other courses to provide time to devote to this fundamental course. This course is not intended for the student who can easily handle a full-time load and just wants some extra help. Discussion section and TA office hours should be sufficient for the student who can easily handle this course as part of a full-time load.

This course provides the opportunity to replace some other course you are now taking with this "extra help in EE 306" course in order to free up some time.

If you think you don't need it, please do not enroll in it. If you think you do need it, talk to your TA, and then to one of the four TAs who are instructing 379K, or to me.

If you want to be considered for 379K, please forward me answers to the following questions:

* Your name
* Your social security number
* Your email address
* What other courses you are taking this semester.
* Which course (if any) you would like to drop if we enroll you in 379K.
* This is your _______ semester at UT.
* What other extra help courses you are taking or have taken at UT
* Your College Board (ACT or SAT) scores.
* Why you want to take the extra help course.

You will be informed by email whether or not you have been accepted into 379K, and the undergraduate office will add 379K and drop the course (if any) you have requested.

It is important to discourage you from this extra help course if you have strong math and problem solving ability, but happen to have no computer background. EE 306 assumes no one has ever used a computer before. We understand that many of you have used computers for years, and some of you have programmed computers for years. But, with respect to what we teach, we will not base what we do on the fact that some of you have had experience with computers and computing. Many students have earned A in 306 with no previous exposure to computers.

If anything about this message is unclear, please talk to one of the TAs or to me. If a TA has any problem answering a student's question, the TA should please see me.

Regardless what you decide to do about 379K, good luck mastering the material of EE 306.

Yale Patt