Which units to study in 5th Sem Operating Systems

Operating Systems is one of the most interesting and scoring subjects of 5th semester. There are a few chapters with problems and scoring marks here is feasible. It also helps to boost the aggregate as the other subjects like Software Engineering are not all that scorable.

Lets's start.

                                                     PART-A

1. Introduction to Operating Systems, System structures

This Unit is a general introduction to OS and the theory is easy to remember and understand. It also gives an idea as to what the entire subject is about and few of the topics discussed here are taken up in more details later on. As this the first unit that is taught and is pretty easy to remember, it CAN BE considered for the exam. 

2. Process Management

The good part about this Unit is the Scheduling Algorithms and the related problems which come in the exam. The unit is a bit long with too many concepts to understand but the concepts are relatively easy to understand and remember again. 

3. Process Synchronization

This unit is a sure JackPot because of its short length, hardly 30 pages. Some amount of code is present but trust me it is really easy to interpret. Moreover, it also helps a lot in the interviews  as the interviewers have a love for semaphores(which they can't hide :D ). Barring the Monitors which come at the end, most of it can be learnt quickly. I hadn't studied Monitors and got away luckily as they din't come for exam. 

4. Deadlocks

This unit is also a must do for exams. What makes it so important is that, it is only 30 pages , understandable, partial overlap with DBMS and Graph Theory. The Banker's Algorithm is a commonly appearing question in the exams and if it comes, its easy 10 Marks in your bag. 

To conclude, I would choose Unit 3 and 4 for sure if I have sometime to understand things. If I don't and just want to write something and get marks I would skip unit 3 and 4 and probably stick to Unit 1 and 2.

Yet another thing that I would like to share is, with OS it always helps to do 3 units from this part. The second part is a bit more tasking. Hence plan accordingly :). 

Hope this helps :), watch out this space for PART-B. 

Which units to study in SW Engineering

Software Engineering is by far the most dry subject in engineering, so many similar terms and only theory makes it very boring to study and more importantly score those 35 marks, just hoping that you would have the required 15 in internals :). (At least by our teacher's grace ;) ).

The key to score marks in Software Engineering is try NOT TO remember text the way it is in textbook, but to understand some part of it(yeah, some part, not all :) ) and try to write those keywords which conveys a lot to the evaluator.

So, lets get started.
                                                  PART-A

1: OVERVIEW

This unit is more like an introduction and has many questions directly given in the Q&A format itself. You will get an idea of how dry the rest of the subject is as you start from this chapter. 

So, considering that there wouldn't be much to mug up, I feel this chapter should be studied.

3: REQUIREMENTS:
This unit is a life-saver, it is really used everyday if you become a Software Engineer. In fact, a common scenario is that, you would be given a task to do at work, you may be asked to give in your estimate(approximate idea of when you can finish it). It always help to understand the requirement well before giving in an estimate. It is something that you can understand well and hence can be picked for exams.

4. System models, Project Management:
The best part about this unit is the Activity Networks and Bar Chart related problems in Project Mgmt, this are really easy to solve and if they come in exams, you can score 10 marks for sure(now, we all know the value of easily scorable 10 marks :P). The System Models have topics which are also explained in more detail in other subjects like (State machine models in FAFL, Inheritance in OOMD(this is in final year) ).

This is all for Part-A, watch out this page for PART-B :).