EEE U111 · Electrical Sciences · BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
The Electrical Sciences Course Guide
Bobrow & Gupta, Foundations of Electrical Engineering (Asian ed., 2015) · 26 lectures, 6 modules · How to run this course week by week, and where the marks actually are.
First, the honest gap check
The pattern here is friendlier than calculus. Row by row, against what 12th boards covered:
| Course topic | In 12th physics? | So the gap is… |
|---|---|---|
| Current, Ohm's law, series/parallel, Kirchhoff's laws §1.1–1.7 | Yes (current electricity) | A refresh, not new learning — for everyone. |
| Capacitors; inductors §1.6–1.7 | Capacitors yes; inductors lightly (EMI chapter) | Small — one evening with the lesson closes it. |
| Dependent sources §1.8, nodal/mesh methods, Thevenin & friends §2.x | No | None. Engineering formalism — new to the whole hall, JEE or not. |
| Transients, phasors, AC power §3–4 | Phasor diagrams appear informally in the AC chapter | Mostly new to everyone; the calculus it needs is exactly what the MATH drills build. |
| Diodes, rectifiers, Zener, BJT §6–7 | Vocabulary yes (semiconductors chapter) | Real course goes deeper — models and design, not description. New depth for everyone. |
Unlike calculus, there is no structural background gap in this course: the school-covered parts are refresh for all, and the engineering parts are new for all. The skill that separates marks here isn't background at all — it's sign discipline and systematic method: the passive sign convention, consistent loop directions, writing equations the same way every time. Those are habits, built in the first three weeks, and the module pages hammer them deliberately.
The evaluation calendar
| Component | When | Weight | Book policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-semester exam (90 min) | Tue 6 Oct 2026 (Institute timetable) | 30% | Closed |
| Comprehensive exam (180 min) | per the Institute calendar — date TBA here | 40% | Closed |
| Regular labs | weekly lab sessions | 13.33% | Open |
| Lab comprehensive exam | end of semester — date TBA here | 6.67% | Closed |
| Class participation tests | surprise, in class, no makeup | 10% | Open |
The handout names no dates — it says only "Timetable" (and TBA for the lab compre). The mid-sem date comes from the Institute timetable; the rest will be filled in the same way as they're announced.
Three strategic consequences, straight from that table:
- Stay current, don't binge. Surprise tests (10%, no makeup) reward being at most one lecture behind, every week. The weekly rhythm below exists for exactly this. Note the gate: the participation component requires 50% attendance in lectures + tutorials — just attend everything.
- Respect the labs — 20% of the grade lives there. These pages cover theory only; they cannot replace lab hours. What helps: read the lab sheet before the session, and keep a one-page log of every experiment (aim, circuit, readings, one surprise) — that log is most of the lab-compre revision.
- 70% is closed-book written exams — same skills the module pages and worked examples build: clean method, sign discipline, unit hygiene.
The weekly rhythm
Same principle as the MATH plan: front-run the lectures. Before each week's lectures, spend 60–90 minutes on that module's lesson page; after the lectures, skim the notes page and work a handful of textbook problems from the sections the handout names. A lecture on half-familiar material is a revision session; a lecture on cold material is a firehose. The 10% surprise-test component quietly pays you for this habit all semester.
1) Don't dismiss the early lectures as "12th physics again" and tune out — the content is familiar but the formalism (sign conventions, systematic equation-writing) is where exam marks live, and bad habits set early. 2) Don't buy extra books. The handout names Bobrow & Gupta sections precisely — that's the contract. (One caveat: whether this edition prints answers to end-of-chapter problems is unverified — check your copy once, and prefer tutorial-sheet problems, which come with discussion.)
The study pages
Each module gets two layers: a lesson (first-time teaching, slow) and notes (the compressed revision map). Built module by module as the lectures advance.
Mid-sem prep · Tue 6 Oct, closed book · the Sem I 2024 paper covered Modules 1–3 (confirm whether AC is in)
Circuit-analysis ladders
Three ladders — dependent sources, superposition, working back from power — from a one-loop circuit up to the Oct 2024 question, one new idea per rung. Opens with a 20-minute cold check that tells you which rung to start on; 3-minute narrated videos on the controller equation and the test source sit at the bottom rungs.
🪜 Ladders · transientsTransient ladders
First order: RC discharge → three snapshots → Thevenin τ → RL and "when does it reach…" → Oct 2024 Q3(b) → Mar 2025 Q2. Second order: initial values → initial slopes → classify → overdamped → underdamped → the RLC past-paper questions. 3-minute narrated videos on the three snapshots and the initial slope sit at the rungs that need them.
📝 Past papers · 2024–2026Mid-sem past papers, decoded
Four papers quoted as set, Oct 2024 (same semester slot, no AC) first. Every circuit redrawn, opening moves, full verified solutions, traps, and a marks-by-topic map. Errors in the printed keys flagged; AC questions marked "confirm scope".
🚦 Lesson · how to startHow to start any circuit question
Redraw and label, name the family, write its three lines. Seven families cover every question in four papers — and the 2026 key shows how many marks the setup alone earns.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 7.7 min · sound onNorton with a dependent source
Oct 2024 Q2 from the basic idea: what an equivalent claims, why the 2Va source can't be switched off, Voc and Isc, then a test-source cross-check. IN = 2 A, RN = 1 Ω.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 7 min · sound onSuperposition with a dependent source
Oct 2024 Q4: one partial circuit per independent source, the 4i source alive in each. 30 − 48 + 12 = −6 V, checked by a direct solve, and why power never superposes.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 6.5 min · sound onRL with two switchings
Mar 2025 Q2: inductor current can't jump, τ = L/Rth, the one-line formula — then restart the clock at t = 4 s with a new τ and final value. The curve traces itself.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 6.5 min · sound onRC, switch from A to B
Oct 2024 Q3(b): capacitor as open circuit, Thevenin seen by C, τ = RC, then v = 30 − 15e−t/2 V and the two requested values.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 8 min · sound onSeries RLC, from KVL to the damping case
Oct 2024 Q5(b): why two storage elements give a second-order equation, α and ω₀, the three cases, the two constants from the initial conditions. Part (a)'s derivation is the same algebra with letters.
🎧 Narrated walkthrough · 6 min · sound onParallel RLC
Mar 2025 Q3: the parallel α, v(0⁺) and dv/dt(0⁺) from KCL, the underdamped answer, and how to sketch it (radians mode!).
⏱ Drill · openings only · 15 min a dayStart drill
Fresh circuits in seven families: pick the family, the route, the first equation — no full solving. Every item checked against an independent solver.
≈ 1 h a daySep 29 – Oct 6
Mid-sem week, fitted around MATH U101 (5 Oct) and U113 (7 Oct)
- Sep 29 – Sep 30: the Module 3 lesson (first order one day, second order the next) — transients are ≈ 40% of past mid-sem marks.
- First (20 min): the cold checks at the top of the circuit-analysis and transient ladders. Start each ladder one rung below the first one you couldn't do; climb a rung or two a day alongside the rest of this plan.
- Once, early: the how-to-start lesson; then the start drill for 15 minutes a day.
- Any spare 7 minutes: one narrated walkthrough (above) — the transient ones alongside Module 3, the Norton and superposition ones alongside the Module 2 dependent-sources section. Commit to each pause before it answers.
- Oct 1: the new dependent-sources section of Module 2 and its four worked examples — dependent sources are in almost every Module 2 question.
- Oct 2: the Oct 2024 paper as a timed 90-minute mock, closed book, every step written. Mark it against the past-papers page.
- Oct 3–4: the other papers from their opening moves only; fully solve only where your opening differed. (MATH gets priority these days.)
- Oct 5 evening (after MATH): the Module 3 notes' traps and the three-snapshot table. Sleep.
- In the exam: write every equation — the keys award marks per correct equation, so setup earns marks even if the arithmetic runs out.
Before the modules · the skill nobody teaches
Module 1 · Basic elements & laws §1.1–1.8 · lectures 1–3
Circuits from zero
What current and voltage actually are, the two conservation laws, the sign convention that runs everything, R, L, C, and dependent sources.
2 · Notes · revisionBasic Elements & Laws
The exam-day map: worked examples with full power bookkeeping, the classic sign traps, prerequisite kit, practice pointers.
3 · Extras lesson · tutorial-tested, outside §1.1–1.8Graphs, averages, ratings, wire
The four "fundamentals" habits Tutorial 1 examines that the listed Bobrow sections don't teach: charge/energy as area, current as slope, average of a waveform, nameplate ratings and kWh, R = ρL/A.
Module 2 · Circuit analysis: methods & theorems §2.1–2.6 · lectures 4–8
Circuit analysis from zero
Nodal and mesh analysis with the intuition for each, then Thevenin, Norton, source transformation, max power, superposition.
2 · Notes · revisionCircuit Analysis: Methods & Theorems
Three fully audited worked examples, the killing rules, dependent-source rules, and the module's six mark-losers.
Module 3 · Transients: first & second order §3.2–3.5 · lectures 9–12
Transients from zero
Why capacitor voltage and inductor current can't jump, the six-step first-order routine (with a second switch and "when does it reach…"), then series and parallel RLC: α, ω₀, the three damping cases and the two constants. Two widgets, and the underdamped derivation the 2024 paper asked for 6 marks.
2 · Notes · revisionTransients: the three snapshots
0⁻, 0⁺, ∞ in one table; eight exam-level worked examples, one per past-paper family (two-position switch, dependent source in τ, two switchings, energy, i′(0⁺) and i″(0⁺), over/under/critically damped); the module's mark-losers.
Drills · every day, ten minutes
Tutorial support · sheets as they arrive
Tutorial sheets 1–2: hints & solutions
All 25 questions redrawn, a hint before each, verified solutions folded underneath, and the nine pattern families the two sheets reduce to. Three printed answers flagged for a check with the tutor.
Drill · after each tutorialTutorial practice drill
A fresh eight-question sheet in the same families — graph area/slope, averages, ratings, wire, KCL, KVL walk, chain — with graphs and circuits drawn and the full method behind every answer.
Coming as lectures advance: Module 4 — AC/phasors and AC power (lectures 13–17) · then diodes, BJTs, op-amps.