CSE 6040 - FA22 - Exam Guide

The pages below should provide all of the information you need to prepare for and take the exams. Please read through all of these pages before asking questions on piazza, we want to keep the information consolidated instead of scattered across Piazza.

Key pages:

Exam Rules: Full exam rules, how grading works, grading policy, and how to ask for help

Exam Rules - FAQ: Commonly asked questions related to the rules

Exam Prep: Additional notes and tips related to exam prep. This one is not required reading but has a lot of information that TA's and past students found helpful.

Midterm 1 Release Notes: Exam duration, number of exercises, score cap

There is a tl;dr of the exam rules at the bottom of the Exam Rules page. The policies should be straight-forward and could probably be condensed into 2-3 paragraphs, but there are nuances that some students may have missed and are therefore spelled out directly.

We apologize for the length of this documentation but we want to be as thorough as possible. The hope is that everything is explained thoroughly enough that you can go back to focusing on the actual content and learning.

Other relevant pages:

Vocareum Troubleshooting

Platform and Proctoring Troubleshooting

Templates for reporting bugs and platform issues on Piazza

List of Vocareum Installed Packages/Modules

Information you need to keep track of and maintain easy access to:

You may skim the various exam pages if you wish, but you should have a complete understanding of the information below before beginning the exam. Missing/misunderstanding any of the information below may result in you having to expend precious exam time looking it up.

• Exam dates (see course schedule, link on left pane of course website)
• Exam length, point cap, and any pre-release information (see exam release notes)
• Exam grading policy (see Exam Rules>Grading)
• Exam rules (see Exam Rules>Rules)
• Vocareum Guide, general information about Jupyter + Vocareum (link)
• Troubleshooting steps for Vocareum (link)
• Troubleshooting steps for Platform issues (link)
• Bug report process (see Exam Rules>Support for potential bugs)

*All of these pieces of information are available on this course website. The Exam Release Notes for each test will be released 1-12 hours before the corresponding exam opens.

Other important topics/tips you should have a good understanding of:

Each of the below items should be thoroughly explained in the documentation on this site. It should all be fairly straight-forward, but if it's unclear please make you thoroughly read the documentation. Students not understanding the information below has resulted in everything from missing the exam, to losing out on a couple of points due to not following the correct troubleshooting process.

• Autograder timeout
• Timing: Exam time limit; UTC time
• Partial credit policy
• The difference between "Passed!" after a cell vs. Autograder grade report/Grade card on the right
• Sharing exam information on Piazza, Slack, Discord, etc.
• How often should you submit? (answer: after every exercise)
• Checking Honorlock/Proctortrack setup
• Troubleshoot, Document, Continue Working!
• Where to find templates for reporting bugs or platform issues on piazza