| Test | Weight | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Term Test 1 | 10% | Tuesday, June 20 |
| Term Test 2 | 10% | Tuesday, July 25 |
| Final Exam | 40% | Exam period |
Check the past course offerings section for links to previous offerings of this course, where you can find term tests and assignments to practice on.
The term tests will last 50 minutes and will be held during regularly scheduled lecture and/or tutorial time.
If you have any serious conflict with the time or date of the test(s), please inform your instructor immediately to make alternative arrangements.
The tests 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.
We want to encourage you to be aware of (and honest about) what you know and what you do not know, because it's important to be aware of the level of your own knowledge. (Also, to be quite frank, this will spare you the trouble of writing — and us the trouble of reading — lots of random or irrelevant bits of information in the hopes of getting a few part marks.) For this reason, if you cannot answer a question (or part of a question) on a term test or on the final exam, you will receive 20% of the marks for that question (or part of a question) if you write
I don't know.
(or something similar) in the space reserved for your answer. You will NOT receive the 20% if you leave your answer completely blank, or if you write anything in addition to the sentence above, because neither of those cases show that you are aware of what you don't know. However, if you cross off an answer that you realized was wrong (so it will not be marked), and then write the sentence above, you will receive the 20%.
Note that it is certainly possible to get less than 20% on a question, if you write an answer that is mostly incorrect. Note also that this rule does not apply on assignments, where you have the time (and the responsibility) to ask questions and learn how to solve each problem.
Some previous offerings of this course: Winter 2006; Fall 2005; Summer 2005; Winter 2005; Fall 2004.
Term Test 1 will be written at the start of lecture time and last about 50 minutes (6:10-7:00). Two hours of lecture time will follow the exam (there will be no tutorial).
The test will cover everything up to reducibility (including tutorial coverage). The test will be similar to the tests from past terms, so they (and the assignments) will be a good source of study material.
Sample solutions and marking scheme:
PDF or PS
Marker's notes
Term Test 2 will be written at the start of lecture time and last about 50 minutes (6:10-7:00). This will be followed by a 10-15 minute break, followed by two hours of lecture time (there will be no tutorial this week).
The test will cover everything since the start of complexity (weeks 7 through 10), including tutorial coverage -- there will be no computability on the test! The test will be similar to the tests from past terms, so they (and the assignments) will be a good source of study material.
The test will consist of 2-3 questions, and will include at least one NP-completeness proof. Make sure you prove/justify all your statements (i.e., your verifier is polytime, your reduction is polytime, the iff of your reduction, etc.).
Sample solutions and marking scheme:
PDF or PS
Marker's notes
Exam paper as written (Summer 2006)
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. The exam is closed-book but a handwritten notes-sheet is permitted as your only aid. It must be a US letter-sized sheet of paper (8.5" by 11") and must contain only hand-written notes on both sides. You must make your notes-sheet available to the exam presiding officers for inspection at any time. Make sure you have only handwritten notes on the sheet: otherwise it will be confiscated and you may face penalties and sanctions as specified by the Registrar's Office (I have no control over that).
The textbook exercises and past exams are good sources of study questions. In the back of each chapter there are solved exercises you can try and check, and many other problems you can try solving. The Past Course Offerings section contains links to some of these exams. The Faculty of Arts and Science on St. George campus also has a website containing many of the past final exams for their courses. UofT Library Past Exams website. In addition to past exams for CSC 363 (and CSC 365, the enriched version of this course), about half the material on past CSC 364 exams is similar to material on our exam (CSC 364 used to be 363+373).
More past exams: Fall 2005 (STG) Fall 2005 (UTM) Winter 2005
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 last 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.
Even bringing in a photocopied aid sheet would be a violation, which would be treated very strictly by the Faculty--don't do it!
Many of the following hints were written by a previous instructor, but are so valuable I'm copying them for you.
Studying for the exam
For the final exam, you will be allowed to bring ONE 8.5" x 11" sheet of
paper, HANDwritten on both sides, and nothing else (no calculator or other
electronic device -- be aware that the Chief Presiding Officers appointed
by the Faculty of Arts and Science have recently been more strict about
taking away cellphones, pagers, and other unauthorized electronic devices).
For your aid sheet, I recommend that you start by writing down the main topics and subtopics of the course, and review all of the lecture and tutorial notes; make sure that you understand everything in the notes, including all of the proofs, and ask questions if you don't.
You should also read all of the relevant chapters in the textbook, but you can safely ignore any sections that cover material that was never mentioned in lectures, tutorials, assignments, or term tests.
Make sure you go over ALL of the assignment solutions and that you understand them. Make sure that you also understand the mistakes you may have made, why they were mistakes, and what the correct answers were. That's the whole point of learning: to make mistakes and understand the difference between what's correct and what isn't so that you don't repeat your mistakes!
Also, by reading the posted solutions carefully, you may notice things you hadn't thought of when you were working on the problems, and maybe learn a few new techniques or tricks for solving certain types of problems.
Do the same for the term tests.
As you're going over all of this course material, keep notes on the important points, on details you know you have trouble remembering, etc.: this is exactly the stuff that you should put down on your aid sheet.
Once your aid sheet is ready, the best way to get ready is practice, practice, practice! Go over as many exercises and problems from the textbook as you can, and the same for previous year's assignments, tests, and exams (which you can get from the CSSU or the UofT Library website -- there's a link above).
Writing the exam
READ THE QUESTIONS! If you answer the wrong question, even if it's because
you were nervous and you misread it, there is nothing that we can do. If
something is unclear, don't be afraid to ask.
SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW! Your strategy during the exam should be:
If you have an idea how to solve a question but no time to do it in detail, then of course you should write down your idea. Also, for most questions, you will get roughly half of the marks for having the correct structure (i.e., clearly showing that you know what you are supposed to do), even if you cannot fill in the details.
EXPLAIN WHAT YOU'RE DOING! When you give an answer, make sure that you give at least a short statement of what you're doing before giving us the answer: if your answer is incorrect, this can make the difference between getting NO mark (because we can't tell if you understand what you're doing) or getting part marks (if we see that you have the right idea but simply made a small error, or that you have the wrong idea but wrote it up correctly).
DON'T RAMBLE! Write concise, to-the-point answers. If you ramble, the feeling it gives us is that you don't know the correct answer. Also, be aware that if you give us a correct answer followed by explanations that are clearly wrong or irrelevant, you will lose marks! So only write down what you know is correct: if you're not sure, either say so explicitly or don't say anything.
On the other hand, if you start writing down an answer and you realize that it's wrong, SAY SO! You'll get more part marks for showing that you understand your mistake, even if you're not sure how to fix it, than if you simply leave it like that (which gives the impression that you don't even realize that what you did was wrong).
On a related note, don't feel like you must fill all of the available space: it is quite possible that a correct answer will require only part of the space for some questions.
RELAX! You'll function much better if you are well-rested and relaxed than if you are tired or tense. If you know that you are the type of person who gets extremely nervous during a final exam, then take the time to talk to other people to find out what they do to relax, or go to the Learning Skills Centre in the Koffler building and talk to the people there. They have experience helping people cope with "exam anxiety" to allow you to really show what you know.
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