| Test | Weight | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Quizzes | 14% | Mondays in tutorial, weekly |
| Term Test 1 | 10% | Wednesday, October 17 |
| Term Test 2 | 10% | Wednesday, November 21 |
| Final Exam | 36% | Exam period |
Check the past course offerings section for links to previous offerings of this course, where you can find old term tests and assignments to practice on.
The term tests will last 50 minutes and will be held during regularly scheduled lecture time. The quizzes will last approximately 15-20 minutes and will be held during regularly scheduled tutorial time. Quizzes will also include a peer marking component, where you will evaluate another student's answers. Your total mark on the quiz will be composed both of the quality of your answers and the quality of your marking.
If you have any serious conflict with the time or date of any of the tests or quizzes, please inform your instructor immediately to make alternative arrangements.
The tests and quizzes will be closed book (i.e., NO aids allowed), and should be written in pen (remarking requests for tests written in pencil will not be accepted) — the test paper will have lots of room for rough work.
The quizzes will be held during tutorials on Monday evenings. Each quiz will last approximately 15-20 minutes, and will include topic(s) covered in the past week or so.
The format of each quiz will consist of two parts. The first part will be answering one or a few questions similar to those pondered in lecture and tutorial. The second part will consist of peer marking another student's quiz. Part 1 is meant to help you keep up with the course material and confirm that you understand it sufficiently to complete the assignments, while Part 2 is meant to help you understand qualitative differences in answers (how answers can be presented better or more clearly).
We'll evaluate you both on your answers and your marking effort. Typically you'll get the grade awarded by the peer marking (since your classmate worked hard to give you the correct grade), but we reserve the right to change/correct it. While peer marking, though most answers are clearly right or wrong, "close calls" can happen and you won't be penalized if you give a good and reasonable marking effort.
A couple last rules: the quiz must be written in pen (just cross things out if you make a mistake), and you can't mark a quiz from the same person more than once (since we want you to see different styles of solutions).
To help show you what to expect, here is a sample quiz from a
previous semester:
Sample Quiz (PDF)
(PS)
Term Test 1 will be written during regularly scheduled lecture time on Wednesday, October 17, lasting about 50 minutes (12:10-1:00pm). The test will be written in the usual lecture room.
The test may cover anything up to and including the lecture and tutorial of the preceeding week (and including assignment 1). The test will be similar to the tests from past terms, so they (and the assignments and tutorial exercises) will be a good source of study material. Indeed, some test questions may be identical to tutorial exercises.
Test paper as written:
PS
Sample solutions and marking scheme:
PDF or
PS
Term Test 2 will be written during regularly scheduled lecture time on Wednesday, November 21, lasting about 50 minutes (12:10-1:00pm). The test will be written in the regular lecture room.
Coverage will focus on proofs and material covered from week 5 - 10 (this material of course builds on and depends on the earlier material). The test will be similar to the tests from past terms, so they (and the assignments and tutorial exercises) will be a good source of study material.
More specifically, the test may cover proof structures, proofs and disproofs of symbolic statements, and proofs and disproofs of asymptotic notation statements.
Test paper as written:
PS
Sample solutions and marking scheme:
PDF or
PS
Some previous offerings of this course: Summer 2007 Winter 2007 Fall 2006
Please note that the order of material might be different in some offerings, so not all questions might be applicable to our class. Also note that some terms there is only one midterm test.
Unfortunately, I do not have any test solutions or test papers that are not listed below (though if you find some, please let me know and I'll add them to this list!).
2006Winter Midterm 2.
2005Fall Midterm 1 solutions, Midterm 2 Solutions.
2005Summer Midterm 1 solutions, Midterm 2 solutions.
2004Fall Midterm solutions.
2004Winter L0101
(Note: add return false; to the end of Q3)
Solutions.
The final exam will be written at the time set by the Final Exam Timetable, which is now available. Make sure you note the date, time and room carefully. Follow the instructions provided by the Faculty if you have a conflict for the final exam.
The exam is set for three hours in length, though it might not take you the entire time. The exam is closed-book. Be sure you are familiar with the Rules for the Conduct of Examinations, as the Faculty of Arts and Science runs the examinations separately from your instructor (thus your instructor can't do much to help you in the exam room if you unintentionally break the rules). Pay particular attention to prohibited items (such as electronic devices). Further details about the exam, and a number of past exams, will be posted later.
Old final exams are a great source of study questions. The Library indexes most of the past exams for many of the UofT courses. Visit the UofT Library Past Exams website to get scanned copies of old exams.
I've been asked to pass on the following warning, in that no one inadvertently violates the (unfortunately necessarily) strict rules:
The Faculty of Arts and Science has become very strict about unauthorized aids at final exams. This is a response to some innovative cheaters. The consequences have been significant: students don't only lose the aid, but they may lose the exam. This is the case whether or not they intended to use the unauthorized aid to cheat.There have been a lot of cases recently with cell phones, pagers and unauthorized calculators. Cell phones and pagers are not allowed, even if they will be used just to tell the time.
There was a case in a recent year involving two friends who were communicating. They may just been rolling their eyes as if to say "this test is stupid/annoying, ha ha", but there was obviously communication going on and they got charged. Unfortunately it's completely untenable to have a rule which says that communication is allowed iff it's not on the topic of the exam. So people who can't help communicating should take care not to sit near each other.
Final exam as written (PS)
(PDF)
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