CPSC 231: Midterm Information

(I will add information here as we get closer to the exam so you should check back here for updates)

Date/location:

• The exam will be written outside of class time: Thursday Oct 27 at 6:30 - 7:45 PM

• Pavol Federol's lectures (9:30 AM and 14:00 PM): write in ST140
• James Tam's lecture (3:30 PM): write in ST148

Review material:

• During lecture as I cover the material I have provided 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.
• Extra-extra 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. [Extra-extra review]

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)..coming soon

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.
• Text books: can be used as another source of material to help you understand the material as you prepare for the exam. I won't however directly examine you on material that is listed in the textbooks that I didn't cover in class.
• Tutorial exercises and the tutorial handouts: I won't be directly examining you on this material (unless it overlaps with the lecture material, the exception is the material on UNIX would you got to apply in A1).

Lecture topics (exam review)

Introduction to programming

• Creating, translating programs into binary/machine language and executing programs
• Variables: declaring, assigning values, accessing, naming conventions
• Named constants: difference from variables, naming conventions
• Common arithmetic operators, order of operation
• Print(): displaying string vs. memory (variables, constants) output, format specifiers (only precision was covered in lecture), escape codes, triple quoted output
• Input()
• Functions that convert types: int(), float(), int()
• Strings: concatenation
• Program documentation: inline and header
• The three types of errors: syntax, runtime, logic. How they differ, when they occur, examples of each

Decision making

• Branching structures: IF, IF-ELSE, IF-ELIF and multiple IFs
• Logical operators: AND, OR, NOT (logical expressions formed inside of Python programs and formed outside of coding e.g. truth tables)
• Nested branches
• Minimum test cases for decision making structures
• Drawbacks of floating point variables and the use of an Epsilon

Repetition

• Categories of looping structures: pre-test, post-test
• FOR loops, WHILE loops
• Examples of counting loops: single increment, decrement, increments/decrements in values other than one
• WHILE loops that don't update by a additive amount (e.g. increase by a product)
• FOR loops that iterate through strings

• Erroneous loops: never end, never run

• Sentinel controlled loops

• Nesting: nested loops, branches nested in loops, loops nested in branches

• Minimum test cases for loops

• (The Usability Heuristics won't be covered on your midterm)

Exam topics

You are expected to be familiar with common functions that have been covered in class such as: print(), input(), int(), float(), str(), randint().

Exam questions¹

^{1 It's based on a near-final version of the midterm (exact proportions may vary *slightly*)}