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GENE 123Electrical Circuits and Instrumentation

Units
0.50
Faculty
Engineering
Subject
General Engineering

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: scheduled, 2 lecture sections. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

Charge, current, and voltage. Voltage and current sources, resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Laws, nodal analysis, Thevenin and Norton models, instrumentation amplifier circuits, time response, impedance. Function and characteristics of basic electrical transducers. Resolution, precision, and accuracy. Basics of data acquisition.

Prerequisites

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

Winter 2027 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
SectionClassEnrolledMeets
LEC 00149120 / 120TTh 08:30–09:50
TTh 08:30–09:50
Jan 19 11:30–12:20
Mar 23 11:30–12:20
Mar 30 11:30–12:20
Feb 24 14:30–16:20
LEC 70119830 / 9999Online or by arrangement
LAB 20149300 / 120F 08:30–11:20
F 08:30–11:20
TUT 10149130 / 120F 13:30–14:20
F 13:30–14:20

Resources

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Reviewed on UW Flow

54% liked it35% easy60% useful

From 216 ratings and 34 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • Fuck this course

    Apr 2016 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • never even watched any of chetty's lectures but followed everything fiona posted - ez 90s

    Jun 2021 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Do significant amounts of practice and you can ace this course no problem. A lot of people struggle with it but if you work on it enough it can easily become one of your best courses.

    Jan 2018 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Review of high school concepts and introduction to a few new ones. Lots of theory and math on circuits. Easy, but must-know fundamentals for future courses!

    Oct 2016 · liked it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • As a civil, this course seems very out of place. If anything, you get to practice how to learn and how to problem-solve. The profs who teach this course don't seem to care too much about the students. That alone makes this a difficult course to many people.

    Jun 2016 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

74 posts and comments in 60 threads mention GENE 123, June 2011 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Winter 2024

Winter 2022

ECE 207 with Omar Ramahi 6 points, 5 comments

u/Severaxe: “All time professor, our GENE 123 final was a word document with handwritten questions scanned into it, bullet points drawn by hand, and pretty fair questions. Great professor, and good at teaching, but making finals...”

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I am literally failing 1B 119 points, 73 comments

“For midterms: Calc: 12% (worth 25%, finals is 65%) Circuits: 17% (worth 20%?, finals is 50%?) I honestly dont know if I will be able to pass these courses and even if I dont, will I even pass the …”

u/Dummy_Wire: “I was in a somewhat similar spot in 1B, though this was four years ago (and I’m in Civil, btw). 1A was a breeze, but then 1B midterms rolled around. …”

u/Dummy_Wire: “… Apparently the new circuits course is easier/better than the old GENE 123 that we took. 1B was historically the most failed term for Civils though. I think we lost like 10 people, and gained like 5 of the 2021 Civils who failed it the year prior into our class. …”

u/Dummy_Wire: “Our lecturer for GENE 123 was the worst. My Reddit name is literally a joke about something he used to say in class all the time, because he was so bad it became a meme in the class. …”

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Fall 2021

CS vs SE at Waterloo 0 points, 3 comments

“I'm gonna be applying to SE and CS next fall but I see a lot of people on here say that they're very similar in terms of Job opportunities but what about the content? …”

u/ffrosteh: “You're not going to believe this but if you had spent 2 seconds trying to find the answer on Google you would have found this page answering your question, among a few hundred Reddit posts asking the …”

u/Lpnzr1: “… ece 140(that SE kids take) is relatively harder (although similar) than GENE 123 which some math majors and some engineering majors take. …”

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GENE 123 vs MTE 120 0 points, 3 comments

u/Nk001337: “Hey, I'm a CS student Which one would be easier GENE 123 or MTE 120 for DH specialization and what is the workload/ difficulty compared to Math 135 or CS 135”

u/QuestionTuesdayFTW: “Can't speak for your second question, but I'd argue GENE123 is easier. MTE120 goes over a lot of electrical theory and the physics behind it. It's also a 0.75 weight course in Tron.”

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Spring 2021

A Retrospective on Online First Year Civil Engineering 51 points, 29 comments

u/Intense_Stare: “… sets, possible to cram the night before if you din’t) This course is a modified version of GENE 123 (introductory electrical engineering) with more focus on the labs and sensors. Great teaching team but they were dealt a shorthand with having to jerry rig this online. …”

u/Dummy_Wire: “… I’m glad they fixed up the EE course, since I think my year was the last one to take GENE 123 like everyone else, and it was a total cluster-fuck all around that year. …”

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Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

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