CPSC 203: Midterm information

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CPSC 203: Midterm Information

More information will be added here as we approach the exam date so you should check back here for updates

Date/location:

The exam will be written outside of class time: Friday October 30 4:30 - 5:45 PM in ICT102

Review material:

During lecture as I cover the material I will provide suggestions of what an exam-like question may look like. You should attend class for this info and note the details as it comes up.
Online review questions: the following are meant to provide you with some extra practice so you need to actually try them on your own to get anything out of it. For that reason solutions won't be posted. But if you still have questions after attempting a question then you can ask, just make sure you have tried them first! [Online review questions]
Want even more practice, try the library website, there's online books that are licensed by the U of C. Look for Office2013 books and you can try their recommended exercises: [Safari website]

Front cover from the actual exam (so make sure you look at this beforehand...important so make sure you read them beforehand!):

(Flip side of cover - top of page showing where you write your student ID number)

Material that you should study

The lecture material: the PowerPoint slides will provide you with an outline of the topics to be covered. However studying the information just listed on the slides won't be sufficient to do well on the final exam. You will also need to take notes in class and to study and understand those notes. If you have any questions then make sure that you ask me for help and clarification.

Using software applications: General
	You won't be asked about where different features are located in a particular program i.e., what is the sequence of clicks to invoke a particular feature of Excel
MS-Word
	You be asked general questions about the benefits of using certain features of Word (e.g. automatically creating a table of contents, using master documents)

MS-Excel

	(More information coming regarding Excel functions...)
	Remember: You won't be allowed to use a calculator let alone a more powerful device such as tablet or laptop. However any calculations that may be asked to perform should be fairly simply so you can evaluate them by hand. (It is assumed that you can handle the common mathematical operations that you were taught in grades 1 - 12).

MS-Access
	Input masks and validation rules: you could be asked to specify either of these on an exam in order to fulfill some requirements e.g., "What is the validation rule that you should specify if you wanted to ensure that the bank balance is non-negative".
	Forming queries: you could be asked to form your queries either graphically ("design view" in Access) or in text form (SQL).
	Evaluating the result of a query: given a set of data in some tables and a query (graphical or SQL) you could be asked to determine the set of results returned.

How to prepare for the exam

As mentioned early in the semester Computer Science isn't an area where you can just read a book or memorize a few points on a slide and expect to be proficient and have a deep understanding of concepts. While it is important to 'study' concepts, this traditional form of preparation is mandatory but not sufficient. Like any other hands-on area you evaluate and improve your knowledge and understanding by 'doing'.

Examples (non-exhaustive list):

Excel: write out functions by hand and predict the expected outcome (by hand and not by viewing the results in Excel). This method of 'hand' predicting results is referred to as 'tracing' output). Using functions such as (if, lookup, vlookup and the string functions to solve different real life applications (examples I've given out in lecture).

Access: write out sample input masks, validation rules and queries and predict the expected results (again not just by getting Access to 'tell' you the answer). Think of examples of different types of data (SIN numbers, phone numbers, credit card numbers, post codes etc.) and try to define an input mask or validation rule that will ensure that the correct data in the correct format is entered. Defining and tracing the results of queries under different scenarios using the graphical Design View and via SQL.

Exam topics

Lecture topics covered so far	Approximate proportion of exam²
Computer fundamentals	~14%
Logic	7
Spreadsheets	42
Databases	33
Miscellaneous¹	~3%

1 The topic or topics being evaluated in the question doesn't fall neatly into one of the above categories e.g., the question covers materials that span multiple topics

Exam questions²

Multiple choice questions 38 marks
	38 questions
Short answer questions 19 marks
	Excel spread sheet: 1 question x 7 marks
	Access database: 2 questions x 12 marks

^{2 It's based on a near-final version of the midterm (exact proportions may
vary *slightly*)}

^{MS-Excel documentation that you will get for the exam: as indicated in
class the documentation shows you the function arguments ("how to run function")
but not detailed explanations about how each one works such as the return value.}

Basic mathematical operators: assignment (=), addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication(*), division (/), exponnent(^)
Basic statistical formulas (an alternative to entering the start : cell range is to manually enter a series of numbers as the function argument).
	sum (<start cell> : <end cell>) average (<start cell> : <end cell>) min (<start cell> : <end cell>) max (<start cell> : <end cell>)
Counting functions (an alternative to entering the start : cell range is to manually enter the data sequence as the function argument).
	count (<start cell> : <end cell>) counta (<start cell> : <end cell>) countblank (<start cell> : <end cell>)
String (and related utility) functions (an alternative to entering the cell is to manually enter a string as the function argument).
	left (<cell>, <number of characters>) right (<cell>, <number of characters>) mid (<cell>, <start position>, <number of characters>) find(<find text>, <within text>, [<start position>]) concatenate(<cell₁>, cell_2,cell_3....cell_n)
Date and time functions
	today() now()
Branching function
	=if (<condition to check>, <return value: condition true>, <return value: condition false>)
Logical comparators (relational operators): less than (<), less than equal to (<=), greater than (>), greater than equal to (>=), equal to (=), not equal to (<>)
Lookup functions
	LOOKUP(<Lookup value>, <Lookup column (vector) Start : End>, <result column (vector) Start : End>) VLOOKUP(<Lookup value>, <Lookup table Start : End>, <Lookup table Column specifying the return value>, [<Exact match required?>])
Conditional counting functions (an alternative to entering the start : cell range is to manually enter the data sequence as the function argument).
	countif (<start cell> : <end cell>, <condition>) countifs (<start cell> : <end cell>, <condition>, (<start cell> : <end cell>, <condition>) )

^{MS-Access documentation that you will get for the exam}

Characters that define input masks
	Numbers: 0, 9 Alphabetic letters: L Alpha or digit: A Digit, space, plus or minus sign: #
Specifying validation rules (Strings): Like "<Format for String>"
	Formats: Numbers [0-9], Alphabetic [A-Z], Wildcard *, Single character wild card ?
Counting functions (an alternative to entering the start : cell range is to manually enter the data sequence as the function argument).

Cutoffs used to determine your midterm grade point

Min percent	GPA
0	0
40	0.7
50	1
51	1.1
52	1.2
53	1.3
54	1.4
55	1.5
56	1.6
58	1.7
60	1.8
62	1.9
63	2
64	2.1
65	2.2
66	2.3
67	2.4
68	2.5
69	2.6
71	2.7
72	2.8
73	2.9
74	3
76	3.1
78	3.2
80	3.3
81	3.4
82	3.5
83	3.6
84	3.7
86	3.8
88	3.9
90	4
92	4.1
94	4.2
96	4.3