CPSC 217: Final Exam Information

Additional details will be added here as we get closer to the actual exam date.

Cautionary message: don't get complacent if you did well on the first exam.

• Many students will find the final exam far more challenging to the midterm.

• Similar to how A2 and A3 were much more challenging/harder than A1 final will be harder than midterm (in order to improve your design and problem solving skills you needed to solve more challenging problems).

• Also the difference is partly because of the nature of the material (functional decomposition is more complex than looping, looping is more complex than branching etc.) .

• How to rise to this challenge:

  • Going to class and doing assignments will help.

  • Completing additional practice work can help even more.

  • Following the 4 tips for success from the start of the term.

General tips from the midterm for preparing for the exam

• Recall that programming is a hands-on field, you get better by doing.
• At a bare minimum you need to study and learn concepts so you understand the important programming tools and principles you have been taught.
• Getting familiar with terminology is important. For instance you could be directly asked to explain concepts or the instructions for an exam question requires that you understand terms. Because this is expected knowledge I cannot answer programming or python terminology during the exam.
• But you only get the deepest understanding and you only truly develop your programming skills by doing.
• For more details refer back to the [Introduction to course/administrative section] of the course especially the 4 tips for success although you will see I do provide other tips if you review the lectures again.

• It's expected that you are not only familiar with procedural programming concepts but also terminology that you have been taught. Consequently, when terminology is used on the exam I cannot explain the meaning of the terminology. As a purely hypothetical example if you were asked to write proper documentation for a function, I won't be able to explain what 'documentation' means.

  • Terminology questions have cropped in the past a few times but because Zoom has to be used as the tool for answer questions (and unlike asking your questions in person because you aren't aware of how busy the queue may be in Zoom) I am reminding you all ahead of time so the wait to get questions answered isn't made unnecessarily long and so some of you don't get caught off guard during the final because you don't understand what questions are asking.

• Although it has been mentioned in class a few times (and does go without saying) you should go through all the course material and not only become familiar with the programming concepts and practice at improving your hands on skills but you should also study your terminology.

Date/location:

• The day of the exam is scheduled by the Registrar [university Peoplesoft web portal]. They have scheduled it on Monday Dec. 19. Consequently you can write your exam during a 24 window starting 12:01 AM Dec. 19, ending 11:59 PM Dec. 19.
• Duration: according to the exam rules asynchronous exams be 120 minutes in length (the exception presumably can occur if the instructor has instructed a 180 minute time slot beforehand).

Exam medium/how you take the test

• The final will take the form of D2L quiz (it can be found in D2L under: Assessments->Quizzes).
• Unlike the review quiz make sure you write the one that indicates it is the actual exam that will be graded, the review questions will be labeled as 'review'.

Examination instructions and information about the exam

Asking questions during the exam:

Asking questions via email (only send me exam related questions during the day of the exam to allow me to more quickly get through any exam related questions).

The exam can be written within a 24 hour window for the convenience of students. That doesn't mean, of course, that you can ask me questions anytime during that window and expect a timely answer. I will respond to email as best I can during that time, keep in mind however that I am just one person. Unlike a physical exam the drawback is that you cannot see how busy I am with questions. If many of you start sending me questions that I might not be able to get through them all. Keep that in mind, so I don't for instance end up having a single person sending long stream of email questions or send me questions about other things during that time.

Asking questions via Zoom:

• Going into the Zoom link is similar to raising your hand during an exam: you don't raise your hand unless you actually have a question.
• In a similar fashion don't don't go into the Zoom link unless you already have a question otherwise the time wasted letting you into the room and waiting for you to leave will make everyone else's wait longer which is especially detrimental if the queue is long.

One advantage of Zoom is that I can verbally answer questions which is faster than email and I can let all the people waiting in the waiting room know via a single chat message that I am currently busy helping someone. Another advantage is that if needed you can show me the exam question you are asking about via a screen share.

Day/time when I will be available via Zoom: Monday Dec. 19 from 9:30 - 11:30 AM. Since the next set of exams scheduled that day should not commence before noon and the Registrar tries avoid time conflicts when scheduling final exams this should mean that the time when I am available for questions should work for students. To make its accessible for students in all lectures I will use my Zoom link for my office time and not the two different Zoom links for each the lectures: https://ucalgary.zoom.us/j/92187498221?pwd=M0FkK1dwOGxvQ0ZzYXNaaitWNklPdz09

Examination instructions (these are the actual instructions that you should follow when you you start writing so you need to read them beforehand):

• For all questions, unless otherwise specified assume that there are no syntax errors in any programs or program fragments.

• Open book exam, aids (e.g. course text book, notes) are allowed.

• Recording or making captures of the exam in any form is strictly prohibited

• The exam must be completed individually, no collaboration is allowed.

The submit feature of D2L:

• 'Submit' for D2L quizzes is equivalent to you handing in your paper exam in a regular in class exam.

• DO NOT submit your quiz until you really are done writing the quiz because, similar to a paper exam, you can't "take back your submission".

• DO submit your quiz when you have finished. Similar to a paper exam if you don't hand anything in then you shouldn't expect that it will be marked.

• In D2L you will see a submit button twice. When you press one button you will see an option to press the second button. You need to click on both of them to have your exam graded.

• The First time you see it is when (I believe) when you get to the last question in your exam you will see the 'Submit Quiz' button outlined (in red in image below).

• (The screen capture is from the exam for another lecture so the specific quiz information may not match yours).

• Second time after you click on the first button. This time you will see a warning something to the effect that you are now submitting your work for grading and you won't be able go back to your exam if you do so. Click on the second button (again outlined in red) when are really done.

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.
• Old examinations: I am making a new exam this semester because I am adapting the questions because it's a remotely taught term (I haven't administered exams anytime before this term). Consequently there isn't so much value in you looking at old exams.
• There will be brand new exam-type questions in these locations. In both cases they will be made available gradually as I have time to create the exam material.
  • Multiple choice questions (coming later): they will take the form of D2L quizzes and can be found under: Assessments->Quizzes
  • Short answer questions (coming later): you can find them below.
    • Review question (functional decomposition, composites-lists, problem solving): [Question] [Answer]
    • Review question (functional decomposition, composites-lists): [Question] [Answer]
    • Review question (composites-strings): [Question] [Answer]
    • Review question (decomposition): [Question] [Answer]
  • Because actual final exam questions will likely cover multiple topics (e.g. write a function to display a list, write a function to write to a file etc.) your review questions won't be grouped on a topic by topic basis but instead came out all in one batch.
• Still want more practice questions? Try working through the sample problems in the recommended textbook sold via the bookstore.
• Finished all the textbook problems and want still more? Try working through practice problems in the (Python v3.X) textbooks that you can find via the UC-Library websites: [Link ] (Note that I haven't personally vetted the textbooks for quality or match for this course so you will need to do that beforehand).

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.
• Lab exercises and the lab handouts: I won't be directly examining you on this material (unless it overlaps with the lecture material)

Exam topics

The exam will be cumulative. You are expected to be familiar with material covered before the midterm. But the bulk of the questions will focus heavily on material you saw after the midterm. The exception is functions. Because it's difficult to write useful or even just semi-useful program by applying just one programming concept some exam questions will relate to material from several topics (e.g., you could be required to apply branches, functions, files and lists in just a single question or even in the body of a single function). Consequently it won't be possible to give a topic by topic break-down of the proportion of the exam that relate to a particular topic. However what can be specified is the major topics (worth a greater proportion of the final exam) and the minor topics (still important but will tend to be worth a lesser proportion).

Exam questions¹ There will likely be a greater proportion of non-multiple questions for the final exam than was the case for the midterm.

Cut off scales

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