One more...

Since my last update, I've had two more exams, both for my mechanical design class.

You may remember me mentioning in a previous post that the mechanical design class I'm in is the fourth semester of a four-semester class.  Besides the fact that we Purdue students were obviously three semesters behind anyway, the English lecture finished about four classes behind the German lecture.  Because of this, we Purdue students didn't have clutches or hydraulics covered in the class.  The professor scheduled make up classes and said, (and I quote) "You GEARE students are invited, but I don't think it is necessary for the exam."
None of us went to the make-up lectures because 1) we needed to study for other exams and 2) the professor flat out told us we didn't need to go.

Fast forward to yesterday and the sketch exam for mechanical design.  Before the exam, one of the tutors sent us an email discussing what would be on both exams and gave us an example sketch problem.  The example was a super simple boat transmission with a principal sketch of exactly what to draw.  Sure, there were a few bevel gears, but besides that, all the parts in the example were things we were comfortable with and, more importantly, had covered in class.  We walk as a group fairly calmly to the mechanical engineering building and pretty much expect to be in and out without any trouble.

Then the exam problem came out.

I struggled to read through exactly what was on the paper in front of me and then had a slight panic attack when I realized what we were expected to do.  I will demonstrate with a chart.

Topic                                     Covered in class?                                On exam?
Gears                                      Yes                                                     No
Transmissions                          Yes                                                    No
Clutches                                  No                                                     Yes
Hydraulic Pumps                     No                                                     Yes

Notice the theme.

The goal of the exam was to design a water pump driven by a crankshaft with a safety clutch between the motor and crankshaft.  I stared at the exam for the first twenty minutes trying to figure out what to do before finally beginning.  I managed to finish, and at least compared to the other students taking the exam with me, my drawing actually ended up looking decent.

Before the oral exam today, Dev and I did a few things in order to unregister from KIT.  On the way to the exam building, we called Zach to find out how the exam went.  Zach was the poor soul who had to go first and walked into a bit of a buzz saw.  Word spread between our group about what things to quickly cram for before the exam, but most of us didn't do super well.  Luckily, my drawing saved me, and I ended up with a good grade.

There's one more exam left.  It's on Thursday of Product Development.  I plan on updating again soon, possibly tomorrow.

Until next time, Alles Gute.