Midterm Information

Released: Tuesday, 10/12/2021 at 4:30pm ET; Due Wednesday, 10/13/2021 at 4:30pm ET (24 hours)

The exam will be using Canvas, and the URL will be given here, and will also be emailed to you, and you will be able to find it under Quizzes on Canvas.

As listed on the schedule and homeworks page, this course will have a midterm. It will be released directly after class at 4:30pm on Tuesday, 10/12/2021, and it will be due 24 hours later, on Wednesday, 10/13/2021 at 4:30pm ET.

Materials: The exam is open book, so you are allowed to use the material for the course to look up answers. You are not allowed to collaborate -- you must answer all the questions by yourself without help from others. You are allowed to use Google and other internet resources, but if so, you must list your sources as part of your answers. It will not necessary to cite class sources, like the lecture slides.

Format: The exam will be on Canvas, and may be comprised of multiple-choice, short-answer, and/or longer-answer questions. Coding will not be required, although you may be asked to write or read short snippets of code as part of your answers. If so, it is allowed for you to run that code to test or validate it. You may also be asked to read or create diagrams or pictures and upload them.

Length: The exam is designed to take 80 minutes (the length of class periods), but I have not limited the time you are allowed. Thus, you can use as much time as you need within the 24-hour block. You will be asked to keep track of how long it takes you to do the test, so please answer honestly -- that will not affect your grade, but will help me for next time. Naturally, it is best to start and finish earlier in the time period, in case there are issues, of if you have questions for me that are blocking your progress (see below).

Content: The exam may contain any content covered in the course through Tuesday, 10/12/2021. Thus, anything in lectures 1 - 12 and homeworks 1 - 4 are fair game to be asked about. With respect to the readings (anything "required", "recommended" or "optional"), if something was not in the lecture slides or part of the homeworks, then it will not be on the test. That is, the test will only cover what was discussed in class (or in the homeworks), and not other material that is in the readings. If you missed any lectures, I strongly recommend you go back and watch them, from our Canvas Lecture Videos folder.

Questions: You can ask questions about the midterm before or during the test using Piazza, with the tag "midterm_exam". I have enabled "Private Posts" in Piazza in case you want to write only to me during the exam. I will strive to be available to answer questions between 4:30pm -11:00pm ET on Tuesday, and 10:00am - 4:30pm ET on Wednesday, so it would be best to not leave the exam to the last minute. It will also be useful to occasionally check on Piazza to see if there are corrections to the test or answers to other people's questions that might be useful to you.

Submitting: After you hit "Submit" you won't be able to edit your answer any more, so don't hit submit until you are finished. Canvas saves your answers after the focus leaves a question, so your answers won't be lost. If you want to start over from an blank exam, you can submit and do it over, and I will grade your last attempt. If you accidentally submit in the middle, I will grade the latest version of each question, so you don't necessarily need to re-answer questions you already answered - but please let me know. There is no way for you to see or edit the submitted version.