  The Colorado Upper-Division Electrostatics (CUE) Diagnostic is an exam
developed as part of the curriculum reform at the University of Colorado,
Boulder (CU). It was designed to assess conceptual learning within
upper-division electricity and magnetism (E&M). Using the CUE, we have been
documenting students' understanding of E&M at Oregon State University (OSU)
over a period of 5 years. Our analysis indicates that the CUE identifies
concepts that are generally difficult for students, regardless of the
curriculum. The overall pattern of OSU students' scores reproduces the pattern
reported by Chasteen et al. at CU. There are, however, some important
differences that we will address. In particular, our students struggle with the
CUE problems involving separation of variables and boundary conditions. We will
discuss the possible causes for this, as well as steps that may rectify the
situation.
