CSE 20 Testout Exam OLD Instructions

What You Need

• Laptop / PC running any modern OS (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux). 

• Modern browser with javascript enabled (Chrome, Firefox, Safari work).

• Internet connection (regular ADSL speed, or mobile hotspot, work).

• Access to your @ucsc.edu account.

Before the Exam

Before the test, it is essential that you open, and work, on at least one Google Colab notebook.  This ensures that your set up works correctly. 

Opening a sample exam

Be sure that you are logged into your @ucsc.edu account (perhaps log out of all your other Google accounts on that browser), and click to open the CSE 20 Testout Sample. 

Then, there are three cases.

1. If you are lucky, the notebook will just open. 

2. If you have already used Google Colaboratory before, you may see on the top of the screen: "Open with Google Colaboratory".  You can click that, and it will open. 

3. If you have not used Google Colaboratory before, you may see a message such as “Connect more apps…”.  Click on that, and search for “colab” or “colaboratory”. Click “Connect”, and now you should see the option of opening with Google Colaboratory. 

Working on the sample test

Once you have opened the testout, you need to make your own copy of it.  To do so, select: 

File > Save a copy in Drive

The test is composed of questions. Every question has an initial explanation, a place where you have to include your code answer, and tests for the answer. 

You have to complete every place that says   # YOUR CODE HERE. 

After that, there are some tests.  Remember, when the exam is graded, we will add other tests that are similar, but not identical, to those shown to you here, so you cannot hard-code your answers. 

Working on the CSE 20 Testout Exam

The day of the exam, a few minutes before the official exam start time, you will receive a link to the exam via email. 

Open the Google Colaboratory notebook (see above instructions for sample exam), and make your own copy of it via: 

File > Save a copy in Drive

You can then work on it.  As in the sample exam, there will be a number of questions. For each of them, there is one or more places marked with # YOUR CODE HERE  that you have to complete.  After that, there are notebook cells with tests for your questions. Every cell with tests is worth a certain number of points, generally as indicated in the cell itself. 

Again, remember that we will test your code both according to the tests you see, and according to similar ones we are not showing to you, so focus on getting the right code – don’t just hack a solution for the particular case. 

Notes

DO NOT add or delete cells! The cells internally contain metadata that associates them with the tool for grading them.  If you delete and re-add them, even if they look identical to you, they won’t be able to be graded. 

If you stop working on the test for a little while, you might be disconnected from the runtime.  None of your work is lost (see next on how to recover it), but you may need to rerun the notebook from the beginning via

Runtime > Run all

If you see an undefined symbol that you are sure it was defined, it may mean that the runtime was reset.  Again, rerun the notebook from the beginning via

Runtime > Run all

If you mistakenly delete some of your work, you can access it via the revision history at 

File > Revision history

Submitting your work

To submit the exam:

• Download the notebook in .ipynb format (File > Download .ipynb). 

• Upload the resulting file to the link that is given at the top of the notebook (the sample exam has no such submission link).

Note: be sure to download the .ipynb format, and check that the download succeeds (some browser extensions might interfere in rare cases, so make sure the file you download is not empty). 

Students can submit their work multiple times, and the last submission that is before the deadline (including possible extensions) will be graded.   

In case of trouble: don’t give up.  If all else fails, send to Luca de Alfaro (luca@ucsc.edu) a link to your Colab notebook.  The Colab notebook contains all history of your work, with timestamps, and in case of trouble we can look at it and see what to do.   In general, if you encounter mishaps, communicate with us, don’t just assume the worst. 

Exam duration

The exam lasts 3 hours, and starts and ends at fixed times.  

Students who have documented or self-reported need for accommodations can request more time when registering.  Accommodations are granted to anyone who requests them, and no confirmation is sent: if you requested an accommodation, you can assume that the accommodation has been granted.  

If you have requested more time, just submit the exam before your extended deadline.  Example: if the exam is 6-9pm, and you requested 1.5x time, you can submit up to 10:30pm.

Notification of exam outcome

The exam is grated automatically (hence the importance of abiding by the instructions).  The exam outcome is communicated electronically, a few days after the exam itself.  Students who pass the exam will have their CSE 20 requirement marked as satisfied in the UCSC Registrar system, so that they can proceed to enroll in classes that have CSE 20 as a prerequisite.  Generally, it takes up to a week after the exam result is available for the registrar office to update the requirement for each student.

Collaboration Policy

You can:

• Look up the Python documentation, tutorials, and lectures, online. 

• Search for help on open, public web sites (Stack Overflow, Wikipedia, etc). 

• Use the material you find in the above ways. 

You cannot: 

• Ask for help from others, or collaborate with others. 

• Post your test, search, or solicit help, from non-open sites (any site that requires a login to be accessed).