Frequently Asked Questions

Registration

I cannot register to the course during the registration period.
The system says it has ZERO capacity. Why?

PHYS 200 is opened with ZERO capacity in the registration period. This simply means that we allow the students to register ONLY IF they are eligible. The purpose of this registration is to keep the population of this course at a maximum of 96 students (32 per section) since this is our upper limit in the PC lab.

How are the students chosen for the FALL/SPRING semesters?

Normally, students in their third semester in the Fall semester are required to take the course in the FALL semester, while all others are required to take it in the SPRING semester. We collect details of ALL Physics students from SIS. The following criteria are used to decide your registration semester:

For a list of eligibility criteria for either semester, see below.

  • Criterion: What is your entry semester to the PHYSICS program?

    • Reason(s):

      • The course became compulsory starting from FALL 2014.

  • Criterion: Are you a regular/irregular student?

    • Reason(s):

      • Students that have had UNSATISFACTORY or PROBATION semesters have to postpone registering to the course.

      • We must manage the load for the regular semester.

  • Criterion: Is the student registered to all other courses?

    • Reason(s):

      • We exclude students having registration problems.

      • You have to solve them well before the registration period ends so that your SIS information can be updated in time.

  • Criterion: Has the student taken this course before?

    • Reason(s):

      • All students are required to take this course in their THIRD semester.

      • You should absolutely not drop this course for trivial reasons in its regular semester.

      • Students that drop the course for reasons other than medical, leave-of-absence etc will have the lowest precedence in the following semesters.

      • If you fail (W, NA, F) or you want to improve your grade (lower than or equal to CC) you will have another chance in the SPRING semester.

  • Criterion: Is the student enrolled in a Double Major program?

    • Reason(s):

      • You handle two different program schedules. So you are eligible to take this course in both semesters.

      • However, the sooner you take it the better.

Who is eligible for FALL semester?

ONLY IF you satisfy one or more of the following criteria:

  1. The student is in his/her 3rd semester (i.e NEVER taken the course before) OR

  2. The student has not taken any 2nd year must courses in his/her 5th semester.

  3. The student is a double major student (main major in Physics or Other Departments - you are eligible in either case).

Who is eligible for SPRING semester?

ONLY IF you satisfy one or more of the following criteria:

  1. You have taken this course and failed OR you would like to improve your grade (lower than or equal to CC).

  2. You are a double major student (main major in Physics or Other Departments - you are eligible in either case).

  3. All others if there is any leftover capacity.

Are there exceptions?

If you have extraordinary circumstances such as chronic illness, semester leave-of-absence permissions etc. please justify briefly your reason in the Query Form.
We will evaluate your case and may allow you to take the course now if there is room left in the lab. NO GUARANTEES!

What are the steps for registration?

Here is the order of the events you have to follow. Read these carefully and refer to the table below for a concise list.

  1. Register to the semester as soon as possible so that your information in SIS is up-to-date. SIS data will be downloaded after registration is closed.

  2. Attend the First Meeting (FALL: Tuesday, SPRING: Monday) on Week 1. This is compulsory and important since you will be given crucial information about how the course works.

  3. On the Saturday or Sunday following registration, we will circulate a message to all undergraduate students with a list of student IDs of those students who are eligible for registration. It is therefore important that you check your METU e-mail frequently.

  4. If your ID appears in the list, fill the lab registration section of the query form. This should take care of conflict with other courses, however, if one of the lab sections are filled above capacity, we may not be able to guarantee that you will get into the lab section you wish.

  • IMPORTANT: Students who DO NOT fill the lab registration form will NOT be able to take the course.

  1. On Friday before the add-drop period, you will receive a second e-mail from us confirming your lab section. There will also be a secondary (auxiliary) list for extra vacancies that may occur. So watch your email messages carefully. Some of you may have to change their lab sections through the secretary.

  2. During the add-drop period, register to the course and your assigned section.

  3. The labs will start the third week of the semester while in-class lecturing will start the second week.

How do I ask questions to the instructors during registration?

We understand that registration to this course can be a confusing process. While we do our best to help each and every one of you, we often find ourselves inundated with hundreds of emails. To facilitate this, we DO NOT reply to direct emails during this period. Please fill in the Query Form to receive a reply. We will collect similar questions and publish answers as fast as we can.

Weekly Schedule

Lab Sessions

Can I attend the other section's lab session?

Short answer: No.

It makes all grading complicated within ODTUCLASS. However, if you have a valid and official reason use the Query Form.

What happens if I miss a lab session?

  • If you miss a single lab session you might get a make-up if you have a valid reason for not attending.

  • If you miss two or more lab sessions, you will directly fail from the course.

How do we object to grading for Quiz - Exercise - Assignments?

Short answer: Query to your TA.

Laboratory grading is handled by your TA. Use the Query Form and choose appropriate type, then the query will be directed to the TA.

I uploaded a wrong file to Quiz - Exercise - Assignment. What do I do?

Short answer: Use the Query Form.

Immediately after the due time of the event (< 15 minutes), (1) Mention week number and event number, (2) Explain what you made wrong, (3) Submit, (4) You will receive a copy of query as an e-mail; reply to this message and attach the file. There will be no guarantee for a full grading; it will be judged by TA and instructors.

I uploaded my file late for Quiz - Exercise - Assignment. How do you grade?

Short answer: Use the Query Form

Valid late submissions are only accepted if something went wrong technically. Immediately after the due time of the event (< 15 minutes), (1) Mention week number and event number, (2) Explain why you were late, (3) Submit, (4) You will receive a copy of query as an e-mail; reply to this message and attach the file. There will be no guarantee for a full grading; it will be judged by TA and instructors.

I received "Format of the submitted file is incorrect" as a feedback. What was wrong?

Short answer: In CoLab, do "File➟Download➟Download .py" and submit downloaded file as it is.

You should only use CoLab's features to store and download your work. Don't download (or convert) your code as PDF, PNG, JSON or even TXT format. Leave it as PY. The following sequence of operations might help to understand what you should do to download your code as PY extension: