Exam Replacements

Midterm Details

Midterm Policies

The midterm will be administered as a Gradescope quiz that will consist of short-answer questions and text file uploads. The midterm will be open from Tuesday, May 4 at 12:00 am until Friday, May 7 at 11:59 pm. During this window, you may open, close, and submit the quiz as many times as you would like to; only your last submission will be graded.

You are to write up and work on the midterm on your own. We want the work you submit to be a representation of your own thoughts. However, we acknowledge that your peers are often one of the best resources for understanding concepts; therefore, we are allowing the "Gilligan's Island Rule."

The Gilligan's Island Rule: You are free to meet with fellow students and discuss assignments with them. Writing on a board or shared piece of paper during the meeting is acceptable; however, you should not take any written (electronic or otherwise) record away from the meeting. Everything that you derive from the collaboration should be in your head. After the meeting, engage in at least a half-hour of mind-numbing activity (like watching an episode of Gilligan's Island), before starting to work on the assignment. This will assure that you are able to reconstruct what you learned from the meeting, by yourself, using your own brain.


Midterm Structure

The midterm will be composed of two parts: reflection questions on previous assignments and optional exercise resubmissions.

Assignment Reflection Questions

On Gradescope, you will find reflection questions for each of the exercises and homework assignments that have been due up to this point (HW1, HW2, Ex1-Ex7). As these are reflection questions, the reasoning and explanation matter more than the statement of a fact or opinion. Where possible, please try to be brief/concise while still getting your point across.

When we ask for "distinct" comparisons or "distinct" pros and cons, we mean not to effectively repeat the same point but worded differently. For example, if I was comparing C and C++, and listed out the comparisons:

  • A pro of using C++ is that it has bool defined as a type by default
  • A con of using C is that it doesn't have bool defined as a type by default

These would NOT be two distinct comparisons.

Exercise Resubmissions [optional]

You may "resubmit" up to two exercises that you have gotten feedback for (i.e., exercises that you did not submit are not eligible). To resubmit an exercise, you will need to fill out and submit the given README.md file (released along with the midterm) – you are encouraged to rename this file to help you not mix up files during submission, but please keep the .md file extension. Submission is done via file upload directly in the Gradescope quiz.

There will be sections for reflecting upon and correcting Correctness and Style issues from your original submission. At most, you can earn back 2 points each for Correctness and Style (up to the max score for each category) for each exercise that you resubmit.

Final Details

Final Policies

The final will be administered as a Gradescope quiz that will consist of short-answer questions. The final will be open from Sunday, June 6 at 12:00 am until Wednesday, June 9 at 11:59 pm. During this window, you may open, close, and submit the quiz as many times as you would like to; only your last submission will be graded.

You are to write up and work on the final on your own. We want the work you submit to be a representation of your own thoughts. However, we acknowledge that your peers are often one of the best resources for understanding concepts; therefore, we are allowing the "Gilligan's Island Rule."

The Gilligan's Island Rule: You are free to meet with fellow students and discuss assignments with them. Writing on a board or shared piece of paper during the meeting is acceptable; however, you should not take any written (electronic or otherwise) record away from the meeting. Everything that you derive from the collaboration should be in your head. After the meeting, engage in at least a half-hour of mind-numbing activity (like watching an episode of Gilligan's Island), before starting to work on the assignment. This will assure that you are able to reconstruct what you learned from the meeting, by yourself, using your own brain.


Final Structure

The final will be composed of reflection questions on the assignments not covered on the midterm and overall course reflections.

Assignment Reflection Questions

On Gradescope, you will find reflection questions for each of the exercises and homework assignments not covered on the midterm (HW3, HW4, Ex8-Ex12). As these are reflection questions, the reasoning and explanation matter more than the statement of a fact or opinion. Where possible, please try to be brief/concise while still getting your point across.

When we ask for "distinct" comparisons or "distinct" pros and cons, we mean not to effectively repeat the same point but worded differently. For example, if I was comparing C and C++, and listed out the comparisons:

  • A pro of using C++ is that it has bool defined as a type by default
  • A con of using C is that it doesn't have bool defined as a type by default

These would NOT be two distinct comparisons.

Course Reflection Questions

Also on Gradescope, you will find a few reflection questions on the goals and learning objectives of the course as a whole. The same rules and suggestions apply to these reflection questions.

Exercise Drop

In place of exercise resubmissions, we will drop your lowest exercise score from Ex7-Ex12 that you have gotten feedback for (i.e., exercises that you did not submit are not eligible). This will be taken care of automatically and no action is required of you.