CSC108 Midterm Exam - Hunter's Section

CSC108 Midterm Exam - Hunter's Section
Winter 2000

What you may bring

The aids allowed for the midterm exam are:

Your textbook (Arnow & Weiss)
The API reference (either the version you got from the bookstore or the textbook by Lewis & Loftus)

You may write in your textbook if you wish, and you may put bookmarks in it. On the bookmarks, you may write labels, but not notes or program text.

What you may not bring

You are not allowed to bring:

Your notes
Any book other than your textbook and the API reference
Your calculator.

Chapters covered

To write the test, you need to know (1) what we've covered in the lectures up to and including Tuesday February 8th, and (2) these chapters of the text by Arnow and Weiss:

Chapter 2.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 6.

Chapter 8 (but not the material on Vectors).

In addition, these chapters may be helpful, but they are simply introductory material, and probably not worth studying:

Chapter 1.

Chapter 3.

Topics from this chapter may enable you to write your answers more quickly:

Chapter 9.

Topics not covered

The test will not cover applets or the other material in the "GUI Supplements" sections of the text.

How to Study

I would recommend that you start studying by making sure you have read all of the above chapters from the text book. If you have read them earlier in the term, and you have the time, I would even recommend reading them a second (or third!) time.

You will also find it helpful to review the lecture notes from the course. Make sure you understand the difference between the way primitive type and class type variables work. Know how to to convert between different types of variables. Be sure to understand the predefined String methods and how to process Strings. And finally, make sure you know how to make a class that can be used to have objects created from it.

Reading the text book will help a lot, but your best way of ensuring that you'll do well on the midterm is by practicing writing programs. Remember, you study best by writing programs, not by reading books!! Use the old midterm tests provided on the web pages to quiz yourself. They will definitely be helpful. Allow yourself to use your textbook and API as you would during the actual exam. Then look at the solutions for the old midterm tests to see where you had trouble. [The midterms given by Clarke in 1999 are most relevant.]

Kinds of questions

You can assume that the midterm will have three questions. It will likely be similar in format to the exams given by Jim Clarke in 1999.

One question will require you to write a method or a small chunk of a program; it may or may not involve creating objects and calling their methods.

Another question will be directly concerned with the creation and interaction of objects. It may require you to write a chunk of program, or it may ask you what a program does. It may concentrate on Chapter 4 material.

The third question will give you a program and ask you to determine its output. The best direct preparation for this kind of question would come mostly from the lecture material and possibly from chapters 6 and 8.

I have not yet written the test, so my advice cannot be more specific than this.