Hi There!

I'm Dan Schlegel, an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at SUNY Oswego

CS1 Exam Ground Rules and Preparation Tips

Ground Rules

  1. You are allowed to bring five pages of notes to the exam. These can contain anything (within reason and academic integrity policies) you think might be useful to you.
  2. You will be provided the lab manual appendices.
  3. The TAs and the instructor will only talk to you about individual questions on the practice exam, and only if you come to them having already attempted the question.
  4. In order to be allowed to take the exam you must have your student ID card with you and placed on your desk on the day of the exam.
  5. Leave your electronic devices in your bag during the entirety of the exam.
  6. We will aim to begin the exam 5 minutes before class starts, and I will allow you to continue until 5 minutes after class ends, to give maximal time.

Preparation Tips

  1. Spend some time creating an initial draft of your 5 notes pages
    1. Review your notes, the assignments (and your solutions to them), and the lab manual.
    2. Include what you’ll need to access or re-construct what you’ve learned in the course. This might include definitions, annotated examples, formal specifications, mini-manuals for NPW/MMW, etc…
    3. Include examples you might wish to tailor from.
  2. Complete the practice exam
    1. Work on your own to complete the practice exam. Simulate a real exam situation (1 hour, use your draft notes, no electronic aides, no other people to help, …). The practice exam is slightly too long, so going just over an hour is OK.
    2. Type your code solutions into IntelliJ to confirm that they work as you expected. Fix them if they don’t!
    3. Make notes of areas you are unsure.
  3. Study your notes, focusing on the problem areas you identified in completing the practice exam. Perhaps spend time rewriting your notes pages in ways that will be more usable to you.
  4. Bring questions to a study session – either a CSA one or one you organize with friends in the class! TA hours and tutoring are also options.
  5. If you haven’t completed all of the assignments, keep working on them! They will help you on the exam and are a great way to study. If you have completed them, reviewing them is valuable.
  6. Hide away your first attempt at the practice exam and try it again.
  7. Keep studying and practicing until the practice exam is a complete breeze. Students who do the best often have done the practice exam 3-4 times and have completed all of their assignments.

Time spent preparing for the exam is directly correlated to the grade received. It is probably useful to decide you will spend some amount of time studying every day until the exam.