This quarter (Spring 2021), instead of two exams, we will have four "Unit Summary" assessments that are meant to replace the reviewing, summarizing, and reflecting that studying for exams provides. These assessments will typically contain a few "exam-style" questions to check your understanding of key concepts, but the majority of your time will be spent reviewing and reflecting on the material covered by the study guide.
The content covered by each Unit Summary is as follows:
Complete the three tasks detailed below.
Estimated time to complete: 2-3 hours
Create a 1 page study-guide (1 page max) covering the material from this unit. Think of this as notes to yourself about WHAT the most important concepts are from this unit that you could look back on and understand a year from now. Do not think of this as a "cheat sheet"-style study guide with listings of formulas and definitions, but rather a study guide you would read when preparing for a job interview where you will be asked questions about course content that a graduate of CSE 351 would be expected to be able to converse about.
Your study guide should not be a loosely organized list of formulas or definitions. It should have some type of organized structure, for example, it could be organized as an outline or bullet points under headings. We recommend including both specific details and higher-level summaries of concepts/topics. Whatever format makes the most sense to you will be fine, but write it such that when you look back at it a year from now you can understand it. Complete sentences are not required, but grammar should be sensical and logical. The staff needs to be able to understand what you have written, and your guide should demonstrate some method of knowledge organization.
You are limited to 1 page (side) of an 8.5" x 11" page (in pdf format). So you will have to think carefully about what you feel are the most important points. Fonts should be no smaller than 10pt. Diagrams and pictures are fine as long as everything fits on one page. A handwritten and scanned or digital ink version is also fine as long as it is readable.
For Task 1, small-group work is allowed. You may review and discuss the material covered by the guide with a small group of your peers (maximum group size of 4). However, whatever you submit should be your own work, in your own words. If you work on Task 1 in a group, you must submit the names of everyone that you worked with. Each individual's guide should be unique to the person submitting it (i.e., you may not construct a single guide as a group submission), and reflective of each individual's own understanding and view of the material.
Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes
Write 2 paragraphs about why the material from this unit will make you be a better programmer. This course is designed to have something for everyone, whether your goal is to design hardware or just use it. One of the goals of this course is to make you a more effective programmer. Take some time to think about the material from this unit from the perspective of a programmer. What are some very concrete take away concepts and skills learned in this unit that you will be able to put into action as you continue programming? Some of these things may be very specific to the C language, but others are more general and apply to other languages as well.
Answers should not be of the form - "Now I understand floating point format" but instead describe HOW understanding floating point format will make you a more effective programmer. What will you do differently now in your programming than you did before? Make sure to include some specific examples.
You are limited to approximately half of a single side of an 8.5" x 11" page (in pdf format), assuming standard 12pt font size with single spaced lines. Fonts should be no smaller than 10pt. A handwritten and scanned or digital ink version is also fine as long as it is readable.
Task 2 must be completed individually. Your submission should be your own work, in your own words.
Estimated time to complete: approximately 30 minutes
Answer the provided questions. These questions are designed to test both application and conceptual understanding of the material covered by the study guide. You may refer to your notes from Task 1, the course slides, Ed Lessons, the course textbook, and other COURSE resources while completing Task 3. Use of materials external to the course is not allowed.
Task 3 must be completed individually. Your submission should be your own work, in your own words.
In an effort to give you a better idea of what we are looking for in Task 1 and Task 2, we have included a good example of a unit summary on LinkedLists and a not so good example. (Note: These have been combined into a single page for simplicity. Your Task 1 and Task 2 will be on separate pages and each submitted to a different assignment on Gradescope.) These examples are only on one topic, and it is a topic that we do not cover in this course, so your unit summaries will differ in both content and length. The aim is to give you a better sense of what we are looking for in each of the two tasks. Below are some notes comparing the two for each of the tasks.
Task 1 Comparison:
Task 2 Comparison:
Unit Summaries will be submitted via .
All Tasks will be graded separately. Tasks 1 and 2 will be weighted equally, and Task 3 will be weighted the same or less than Tasks 1 and 2.
Tasks 1 and 2 will use the following grading scale:
We expect that most people who complete Task #1 and Task #2 with genuine effort will receive the grade of M for "Meets Requirements."
Task 3 will be graded using either the scale above or using standard exam-style grading (i.e., X points per questions).