Exams

The midterm is Monday May 1 in class (9:30-10:20AM)

The final is Wednesday June 7, 8:30-10:20AM

As discussed in the syllabus, 30% of your grade will be from exams.  We will have a midterm and a final, each worth 15% of your grade.  

Why exams?

We think exams are important for you to get the most out of 341.  Homeworks are great, but “work at it until you are done” is different than “review and study until you’re confident you have the ideas down.”  Also, homeworks are simply of a different style -- mostly writing code -- that does not work as well for some of what we’re trying to teach, so 341 uses exams as a complement to the homeworks.

The Key Information for the Final

our final   sample solution for our final

• The final will be in person, CSE2 G01, Wednesday June 7, 8:30-10:20AM (our assigned slot, not under our control).

• The final is closed-book, closed-notes, closed-computer, etc. except you can bring one sheet of paper of 8.5x11" paper with whatever you want on both sides.  The content of your sheet can be typed, handwritten, etc. -- whatever you want.

• The intention is for the exam to focus predominantly on material we studied after the midterm (units 5-8).  However, the exam could include a little OCaml, including OCaml programming, which is also true of the second half of the course.

• The last Thursday section of the quarter (June 1) will be a review session.

• We have added several practice exams to the folder of old exams.  Some of these exams are not a perfect match, not only because question styles and focus always vary, but because the exams prior to 2022 were originally from course offerings that used SML instead OCaml and Ruby instead of Racket-OOP.  We have ported the questions to use OCaml and Racket-OOP, but you may find a typo or other glitch -- let us know if you do.

• We recommend you not over-focus on the old exams.  The reading notes, slides, code, and homeworks are all available to you and are a more thorough resource of "what we hope you learned" than the individual questions on old exams.

The Key Information for the Midterm

our midterm   sample solution for our midterm

• The material on the midterm can be anything from Units 1, 2, 3, or 4 except for the few topics we clearly marked "optional."

• The midterm is in class, so you will have 50 minutes.

• The midterm is on paper we will pass out with plenty of room for your answers and for any scratch work.

• The midterm is closed electronics, closed notes, etc. except...

• You may bring one 8.5" x 11" piece of paper with whatever you want written on one side of it.  You may prepare this however you want (handwritten, typed, whatever).  You can work with others on making things for your sheet.  We allow a sheet so you don't have to memorize things but you also don't print out enormous piles of paper.  And making your sheet is a great way to study.

• Several old midterms from previous times Dan has taught 341 with in-person exams are available.

  • As the older exams indicate, older offerings used the SML language instead of OCaml, but the midterms have been ported to OCaml for you.

  • In Winter 2022 and Spring 2021, the midterms were online and open electronics due to COVID.  The format is different enough that using these exams as practice is probably not as useful as spending the same time studying, so we haven't made them available.

Advice 

• Do study all the course materials -- taking old midterms and doing your homework is helpful (of course), but not a complete substitute for making sure you are familiar with all the concepts, particularly for the more recent topics where we did not have homework.  Study actively -- not just skimming readings or slides or passively watching videos, but writing down ideas, trying out ideas, and seeing how concepts fit together.

• The exam will not be able to cover everything and old exams, while a good indication of the type of questions and level of difficulty you might expect, are not intended to to describe every topic or kind of question we might have.  The overall style will be similar to the old exams, but there are always differences.

• Dan's exams tend to be difficult with means around 70%, sometimes lower, sometimes higher.  This is not intended to stress you out, frighten you, or intimidate you!  In fact, it's the opposite: you should not stress during the exam if you may not be getting everything 100% right -- that's expected.  A mix of difficult and less-difficult parts to questions gives you the best opportunity to demonstrate what you know.  You should work hard and efficiently during the exam to demonstrate as much as you can on each problem.

• Make the most of Thursday sections and, if you are available, the TA-led review session -- participate actively and study enough before that you know what topics you might want reviewed.

• As always, questions about course content on the discussion board are encouraged.