Contents

ISA Exam Overview

Distribution, Work, and Submission

Pick up Exam:

The exam will be handed out in person and must be picked up from Lyn. Typically, this would be done at the end of class the day of the exam. If there are additional office hours, the exam can be picked up during office hours.

Work on the exam:

You can work on the exam in small chunks or in one sitting. Please be sure to review the exam policies.

Submit the exam:

The exam must be submitted by the time specified in the calendar, unless an explicit individual extension has been granted by Lyn. It can be submitted in person to Lyn, or slipped under the door to Lyn’s office (SCI W120).

Remember to mark your name, ID, and signature on the exam cover page before submitting your exam. Unsigned exams will not be graded.

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 Lyn clarifying questions about the exam via private messages.
    • You may not communicate about the exam with anyone except Lyn.
    • 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/s23/), 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 also allows use of any material linked from the exam itself.
    • 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 access the reference resources stated above.
    • All other computational resources are prohibited for exam work: unless explicitly stated otherwise in the exam itself:
      • 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 Hardware-Software Interface part of the course.
  • The exam assumes familiarity with the concepts used by assignments associated with the exam topics.

Study Materials

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

  • Lecture slides, videos, and associated exercises
  • Lab exercises
  • Assignments
  • Review materials and Midterm/Final exams from a similar course at University of Washington in Autumn 2016 or later:
    • These sample exams follow a similar style to the CS 240 exam. Sample solutions are available.
    • It is sometimes necessary to pick and choose problems.
      • The topics relevant for CS 240 are split across the Midterm and Final exams in this other course.
      • These sample exams may also cover some topics, such as floating point numbers, caching, processes, or virtual memory, that will not be covered by this CS 240 exam, and some topics, such as integer representation and bitwise operations, that still matter, but will not be a primary focus of this CS 240 exam.
    • Avoid the exams prior to Autumn 2016, which use an older version of x86 that will confuse you.
    • An incomplete list of suggested problems:
      • Winter 2019:
        • Midterm: 2, 3, 4
        • Final: 1, 2, 3, 4
      • Autumn 2018:
        • Midterm: 2, 3, 4, 5
        • Final: M2, M3, M4, M5, F6
  • The chapters we have used in the CSAPP book include many excellent practice problems (with solutions at the end of the chapter) and homework problems.