Delivery-Date: Wed Oct 15 14:31:52 2008
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:39:54 -0700
From: Bill Cheng <william@bourbon.usc.edu>
Message-Id: <200810152139.m9FLds7d006954@bourbon.usc.edu>
To: cs551@merlot.usc.edu
Subject: Midterm summary of topics...

Hi everyone,

I have just posted a quick summary of the midterm topics at
the class web site (not all topics covered are listed).
Please take a look.

The midterm exam will be closed book, closed notes, and
closed everything (and no "cheat sheet").  Also, no
calculators, cell phones, or any electronic gadgets are
allowed.  Please bring a photo ID.  Your ID will be collected
at the beginning of the exam and will be returned to you when
you turn in your exam.  There will be assigned seating.

Regarding what type of questions will be asked on the exams...
I have just added the following to:

    http://merlot.usc.edu/cs551-f08/description.html#examqs

Question 2 in the "extra homework" is an example of one type
of questions that I could ask.  Many of the questions on the
exam will be in the following form: "In N words or less,
what is the answer to the following question?"

For this type of question, you can write as many words as
you'd like, but I will only read the *first N words* of your
answer!  You don't need to count the number of words in
your answer, you
just need to make sure that the most important part of your
answer appears in the first N words!  (There is no need to
write complete English sentenses when you answer exam
questions.  Just give me the important stuff!)

The reason I'm doing this is that I don't want a brain dump
of everything you know about a topic and tell me that the
answer is there and that I have to look for it!  I want you
to tell me what part of your answer *you think* is important and you
need to distinguish between answers of different quality
and put the best answer up front.

Let me give a couple of silly examples (with questions
that's not in the scope of the exam).

1) "In 20 words or less, for our programming assignments,
   when is 'plagiarism' considered taking place?  If your
   answer is "when you take someone else's work and claim it
   to be yours", then you will get full credit.  If your
   answer is, "when you submit someone else's work", you
   probably will not get full credit.

2) "In 20 words or less, what is the *fairness* policy of
   this class?"  If your answer is, "whatever the instructor
   offer to one student, he must offer it to the rest of the
   class," then you will get full credit.  If your answer is,
   "the instructor must be fair to every student," you
   probably will not get much credit.

Can you tell why the first answers above are *better* than
the second answers?

In general, better answers may score more points.  If you
give very high level and generic answer that's generally true,
you probably will get very little credit for it!  You need to
answer a specific question with a specific answer.
--
Bill Cheng // bill.cheng@usc.edu <URL:http://merlot.usc.edu/william/usc/>