Exams🔗

Why Exams?

Dates

First exam: Monday, October 6

Second exam: Monday, November 3

Third exam: Wednesday, December 3

Please make sure you are able to attend class on these days!

Content

The exams in this course will be simple. There will not be any complicated, open-ended questions. Rather, the questions will ensure you have understood basic factual material you have seen so far in the class. For instance, you will be shown simple programs and asked to predict what they produce as output. If you have actually attended class, done the homeworks, understood the work you turned in, read the text, and followed on EdStem, you should not have trouble on the exams.

The second exam will naturally be a bit more challenging than the first exam. We will have covered many more topics in the course, and done a much more diverse set of assignments, by then. Therefore, you will have more material to revise. The third exam will be more of that.

Note that you are not allowed to make copies of the exams in any way, nor upload them anywhere. Doing so would violate the Copyright policy.

Accommodations

If you have any accommodations that are relevant to the exam, please work out the details with Shriram at least one week before the exam.

The exams will use both CIT 368 and the third floor atrium. Because using the atrium is disruptive to people who work there, if you have an extra-time accommodation, you must take the exam inside CIT 368. That way, when regular time elapses we can return the atrium to general use, but you can continue the exam until your allowed time.

Study and Response Tips

• The exam is designed to be done in the allotted time. But doing so requires you to work smartly and efficiently. Not following the other tips can cause you to run out of time. Getting bogged down on a low-value question and robbing time from a high-value question would be especially unwise!

• As noted above, the questions are meant to be straightforward. There are no puzzles to solve, trick questions, etc.

• Everything you need to know has been covered in class, on EdStem, in the textbook, and/or in homeworks. So as long as you have been following along, asking questions about things you haven’t understood, etc., you should do very well.

• You will not be asked to write any code. So even if you are not completely comfortable writing, say, plait code, it won’t hurt you.

• Every question that requires writing will have a box in which to respond. The box is an upper-bound on how much you will need to write; often, much less writing will suffice.

• You are not being graded on spelling, grammar, full sentences, etc. You need to write only as many words as needed to demonstrate that you understand the answer. Sometimes even one word (e.g., for certain questions about scope, just “static” or “dynamic”) will suffice! In general, when you know the answer, you can write something very concise. When you don’t, you may be tempted to write a lengthy, fuzzy answer. That will not help your grade; you won’t get partial credit for saying enough words. You may also squander time you may need elsewhere.

• For questions that ask for computer output (e.g., “What does this program produce?”), use reasonable syntax. You don’t have to answer character-for-character what the computer would print: your answer is being read by a human (me), not a computer. However, it does have to be clear what you mean. The more you make up random notation, the less clear it will be. If, even after a good-faith effort, I still can’t recognize what you’ve written as the expected answer, it’ll be marked wrong.

Grading

You will receive a letter grade for your exam work.

Each part of each task will be designated in “letter grade” (LG) units (e.g., a question might be 0.25 LG). We just add up all your correct answers (a small number of questions might have partial credit, but most have a striaghtforward “right answer”), and that’s your letter-grade for the exam. The whole exam weighs 3 LG. The first full letter-grade you get takes you up to C, etc. There are no “partial letter grades”, so we will round down, i.e., you only get letter-grades that you earned fully through exam performance.

The exam will show weights for every individual sub-problem. Let’s say problem 3 is worth 1 LG, with sub-problems 3.1 and 3.2 each marked as 0.5 LGs. That doesn’t mean problem 3 is now worth 2 LG; instead, it shows how problem 3’s 1 LG is divided up. Furthermore, you may see 3.2.1 marked 0.3 LG and 3.2.2 marked 0.2 LG. This explains how 3.2’s 0.5 LG are split. The weights of all sub-problems will add up to the weight of the immediate super-problem.

You must pass (i.e., get at least a C) every exam to pass the course. (This is even if you take the course S/NC.)

Logistics

• The exams will be held in person.

• The exams will take place during class time.

• Please make sure you have access to your Banner ID (which looks like B12345678). This is not your Brown ID number. I believe the Banner ID is also printed on your ID card, but be sure to copy the right one!

• You must do the exam on paper, which we will provide.

• Because the questions are very simple, the exams will be closed-“book”. The only thing you can bring in is a small slip of paper that contains your Banner ID, printed at whatever size or in whatever way you need for visual impairment.

• The paper will contain boxes where you should write your answer. Write neatly, and stay within any boxes provided. The boxes are sized to be an upper-bound on how much we expect you to write. Gradescope uses computer vision to identify the boxes to simplify grading, so it’s especially important you stay within their bounds. Time is limited; you never need to be verbose.

• We will not supply writing implements. Please bring your own. Bring backups.

• Please make sure you write with a dark pen (recommended: blue or black). If you write with a light pen or pencil, it will often not be picked up by the scanner, and will appear illegible (or even blank) when we view it, which will make it impossible to grade.

• No electronics should be present. The only exception is if you have an accommodation that you have discussed with me for which you will do the exam on your computer. If you do this, the exam should be the only thing on screen, and it should cover your whole screen, from start to finish.

• We will use CIT 368 and the third floor atrium (which will be reserved for the exams). Students will be expected to space out enough between these two areas to not be able to see each others’ work.

• You will have 22 minutes for the exam. This will permit everyone with time accommodations to still complete by the end.

• The exam will begin at 11:05, giving us 5 minutes to get everyone settled in and the exam work handed out. But please arrive by 11am, not at 11:05! Those five minutes are meant for logistics, not a chance for you to arrive late. The exam will begin at 11:05 whether you are here or not, and end your allocated number of minutes later irrespective of when you began it.

• We require you to:

  • start by 11:15 at the latest;

  • stay until at least 11:15 even if you finish early.

  That is, nobody can leave until the latest starting time; nobody can begin after people are eligible to leave.

If you have questions about any details, please get them clarified on EdStem well before the exam dates.