Spring 2027

Circuits Laboratory I

A laboratory course covering Kirchhoff's laws, inductors, operational amplifiers, and frequency response through hands-on circuit assembly and measurement.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Mark Allie3.0/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Mark Allie

The labs were described as lengthy, and the final test was open book, open note, and open internet. However, students noted that the practice bench exam did not resemble the actual exam.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Compare physical electronic circuit functionality to simulated functionality using computer models

  • Create and read electronic circuit schematics and systematically assemble them on a breadboard using discrete components

  • Identify electronic components using electronic instruments such as multi-meters, signal generators and oscilloscopes

  • Operate electronic circuits with electrical sources such as power supplies and signal generators

  • Verify operation of electrical circuits using electronic measuring instruments such as multi-meters and oscilloscopes

  • Perform simple electronic circuit calculations on quantities such as voltage, current, power, frequency and time

  • Communicate test results from electrical measurements using tables, equations and charts

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

E C E 210 and (E C E 230 or concurrent enrollment), or member of Engineering Guest Students

ECE 270 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.28/5 from 18 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.5/5 raw quality · 1.4/5 difficulty · 10 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Mark Allie

Past students described Mark Allie's ECE 270 labs as easy, though some called instructions unclear or lengthy. Some said he was hard to reach or rarely there, while others found him responsive, funny, and helpful. Some also said the bench exam differed from the practice version.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.74 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 88.1% A/AB (n=185 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MARK ALLIE is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 900
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 900

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Mark Allie

ECE 270 is a one-credit, take-home lab course that students generally found very easy. It pairs well with ECE 230, as the topics and schedules align nicely for a low-stress experience.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.74 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 88.1% A/AB (n=185 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Mark Allie

The labs were described as lengthy, and the final test was open book, open note, and open internet. However, students noted that the practice bench exam did not resemble the actual exam.

Past student reviews · Mark Allie

Mark Allie is a chill professor who helps when students are stuck building circuits, though some found him hard to reach outside of class. His TAs often handled the bulk of the instructional work.

Topics

  • Kirchhoff's laws, inductors, operational amplifiers, and frequency response
  • Circuit verification using multi-meters and oscilloscopes

Skills

  • Assemble electronic circuits on breadboards
  • Use electronic measuring instruments
  • Perform circuit calculations
  • Simulate and compare circuit functionality

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.19 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ECE 270 · Spring 2027

Circuits Laboratory I

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:320:006297",
    "course_id": "ECE 270",
    "course_uid": "course_321818cd548811ba8b5f60ca",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "006297",
    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Circuits Laboratory I",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ff9725baed34dd75ee6b8b0e0f49da5cfd28f3ed2465015c5327231e9791d8bc",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}