HW Exam

Contents

• HW Exam Overview
• Distribution, Work, and Submission
• Allowed Resources
• Topics
• Study Materials

HW Exam Overview

• The exam timeline is marked on the calendar:
  • preview: Friday 8 October
  • available: 3:30pm Friday 15 October
  • due: 11:59pm Monday 18 October
• Exam logistics are discussed in class on the preview date.
• Within the window from the available time to the due time, you may work on the exam whenever you want and for as long as you want, without supervision, subject to the policies on allowed resources.
• The exam is designed to require “a couple hours, give or take,” for a prepared student.
• The exam is structured like a paper exam, not a programming project, covering topics listed below.
• The exam is distributed, collected, and graded electronically with Gradescope. If you cannot access Gradescope, contact the instructor ASAP.
• The exam may be completed by printing (it is 2-sided-friendly), writing by hand, and scanning or by marking the PDF directly with software of your choice.
• Some study suggestions are included below.

Distribution, Work, and Submission

Take the following steps when you are ready to begin the exam.

Download the exam:

1. Review the policy on Allowed Resources.
2. In Gradescope, click the CS 240 course and find the Dashboard.
3. Click the HW Exam assignment. It will show a prompt with a link to Download the HW Exam PDF (and access to upload your submission). Download the exam PDF.

Work on the exam:

• Option 1: Print the exam (it is 2-sided-friendly) and write with pencil or pen on the printed copy. When you are done, use a scanner or a scanning app with a phone’s camera to scan your completed paper exam as a PDF. Please include all pages in the original order. This may take several minutes.
• Option 2: Mark the PDF directly using the software and device of your choice.

Submit the exam:

Once you have a PDF of your completed exam, log in to Gradescope, revisit the CS 240 HW Exam listing as before, upload your PDF to the CS 240 HW Exam assignment, and confirm that your answers appear legibly as expected in the Gradescope view. You can upload as many times as needed before the deadline. If you have issues, please contact the instructor ASAP.

Allowed Resources

The exam is subject to the Honor Code, with the following policies for allowed resources:

• Human resources:
  • Exam work is strictly individual.
  • You may ask Ben clarifying questions about the exam via private messages.
  • You may not post messages in shared streams in Zulip.
  • You may not communicate about the exam with anyone except Ben.
  • You may not give or receive help on the exam, share the exam itself, or share solutions.
• Reference resources:
  • The exam allows use of all materials included in the CS 240 website (any URL that starts with https://cs.wellesley.edu/~cs240/f21/), as well as electronic or physical textbooks and videos listed or linked on the topics page or lab page, and any assignment sample solutions shared by the instructors.
  • The exam allows use of your own CS 240 course notes and CS 240 course work.
  • No other resources are allowed. For example, you may not consult outside web resources such as a web search, StackOverflow, or materials for other courses.
• Computational resources:
  • You may use a computer to access, print, scan, and submit the exam, and optionally to type/draw solutions.
  • All other computational resources are prohibited for exam work:
    • You may not run compilers, interpreters, or debuggers to assist with the exam.
    • You may not use a calculator or number converters to assist with the exam.

Topics

• The exam focoses on topics under the Computational Building Blocks part of the course.
  • ⁺Optional topics are excluded.
  • Later topics, starting with Programming with Memory, are excluded.
• The exam assumes familiarity with the concepts used by assignments associated with the exam topics. The exam will not ask you to recall specific details of assignment solutions.

Study Materials

The following materials may be of use in studying for the exam:

• Lecture slides, videos, and associated exercises
• Lab exercises
• Assignments
• The chapters we have used in the DDCA and CSAPP books include many good problems. Inventing problems by making small changes to homework/lab problems is also useful.