CSE-6040 - Computing For Data Analytics

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CSE 6040 Exam Rules & Policies

Summary: You must complete this exam within the time limit without collaborating with other people. Any attempts to circumvent this policy will be considered an Honor Code Violation.

Honor Code Violations (aka 'No Collaboration Policy')

These rules pertain to Honor Code violations, which will result in you being reported to the Georgia Tech Office of Student Integrity and likely receiving a 0 on the exam at a minimum.

  • No collaboration of any kind. This includes:
    • Working with any person via any means of communication
    • Seeking direct help via making posts, or engaging bots such as ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot
    • Attempting to use any homework help service (ex: Chegg)
    • Receiving or sending exam solutions (including code fragments specifically related to the exam)
    • Searching for exam solutions
      • Accidentally stumbling upon them is ok, but you must report it to us and close the page
  • No circumventing exam rules, including misleading TAs about timing or platform issues:
    • Vocareum extensively logs everything, so we will be validating all reports including issues with the timer, technical issues, etc.
    • This rule is specifically mentioned because this has unfortunately happened before. It's unfair to other students and is an attempt to take advantage of the teaching staff We generally give you the benefit of the doubt, but are very thorough to ensure that no student gets an unfair advantage due to any of these strategies.

What is Not Allowed

  1. No collaboration (see above "Honor Code Violations" section)
  2. No discussion of exams until after the solutions are released. This means:
    • No discussing exam content, structure, question order, difficulty, or anything about the exam
    • No posting of this information on any platform
  3. TAs cannot assist. During the exam the TAs are on 'radio silence' mode, meaning we monitor piazza, but do not reply to posts unless they involve platform/technical issues, or other special issues. We do not help you debug, nor 'clarify' any questions for you.
    • For example, asking if the data needs to be sorted in a specific order would be asking for clarification on instructions. Answering this question would give you information not available to other students, and this is not fair.
  4. TAs can assist if you with technical issues. See the 'Getting Support' section in the Exam Guide for more details..
  5. Time limit: You have the number of hours specified, usually 3-4.5, or the close of the exam window to complete your test, whichever comes first.
    • If you start the exam at 1059 UTC Wednesday, you only have one hour to complete the exam, so make sure you don't wait until the last minute.
  6. Test window: see course schedule.
  7. Technology restrictions:
  8. Only one computer/device allowed (no secondary computer, no tablet, etc.)
  9. Only one monitor/screen allowed
    • You may have multiple monitored plugged in, but the ones you aren't using need to be deactivated. Honorlock/Proctortrack will let you know if there's an issue. This may take a few minutes to figure out, so please test your setup beforehand and confirm there are no issues.
  10. For MSA/OMSA: Chrome is required for Honorlock, but you may have other browsers open.
  11. For edX VMM: Any Proctortrack-compatible browser is required, and we recommend having one more ready to go per the troubleshooting steps.
  12. Webcam required. A built-in one is acceptable, but it must be positioned so you are facing it during the exam (ex: if you're using a laptop with an external monitor, you need to position the laptop so it's very close to the other screen)
  13. Room/workspace restrictions: The following will generate flags in the proctoring tool that we review and approve. If what happened won't be obvious to us during review, please make a private piazza post after the exam with a quick note explaining the circumstances (please be brief!).
  14. No other people around if possible
    • It's ok if you're in the living room and family walks by, or if you cat needs to investigate what's going on
  15. No talking (to people in the room, to people on your phone)
    • if a family member has a quick question, or you get an urgent call, loudly tell them you're taking a test and are not available.
  16. No other technology around you (no phones, tablets, other computers, etc.)
    • Please make sure everything is visibly 'off' and not being used
  17. Environment Package Restrictions
  18. Importing packages: importing a specific package is allowed on Vocareum. You can find a full list of installed packages here.
    • If you are working locally, your computer environment may be different. You may be able to import packages not in Vocareum, or you may import a package with a different version vs. the one on Vocareum. Be prepared to test your code and troubleshoot issues related to this.
  19. Installing packages: install a specific package is not allowed. Vocareum allows you to install them, but they will not work in the autograder; therefore there is no reason to do this.

What is Allowed

Now that we got all of the restrictions out of the way, these are resources that you are specifically allowed to have and things you are allowed to do during your exam. This list is not exhaustive--if you are not breaking the above rules and the spirit of the test, it is allowed. No collaboration is still the key.

Resources allowed: The test is open-note, open-book, and open-internet. You are allowed to use any resources that don't involve collaborating with another person or directly asking for help. It is not possible for us to list every resource that is permitted but here is a list of the most commonly used resources:

  • Notebooks and solutions (your copy + instructor solutions)
  • Practice exams and solutions
  • Notes (hand-written, digital, etc.)
  • Internet-based resources not subject to the no collaboration policy, such as Google search and view general coding forums, but you may not post on there. You can read and search piazza posts, but you may not post to other students.
    • For example, you can search Stackoverflow posts and read everything there, but you cannot make your own post
  • computer software that's not collaboration-related (any note app is fine, any music app, screenshot tool, etc.)
  • local IDEs (see FAQ question about local IDEs)
  • sites like regex101, pythontutor, etc. (interactive sites where you aren't collaborating with another person)
  • Take screenshots of the exam to report issues to us, or for your own notes
  • Calculators (physical, on-screen, web-based)
  • Pen and paper

Other things allowed:

  • Short breaks (~5 minutes; if longer, that's ok but please make a private piazza post so we can resolve the proctoring flag)
  • Eating/drinking
  • Listen to music with headphones using any music app (no speakers please!)
  • Plenty of other things, as long as they don't violate the above rules and spirit of the test

For everything else:

For anything not mentioned here or in the above rules area, please consider if you are getting outside help on a specific problem or if you are learning how to solve the problem. Generally as long as it doesn't conflict with the "no collaboration" and proctoring/tech requirement rules, it's fine.

The rules above are by no means exhaustive, but cover everything you need to know. If something is unclear, you need to ask the staff via Piazza before the exam (after carefully reading the Guide and Exam Rules - FAQ page). Note: we will be super busy around exam time, so it may take a while to get back to you. While we will still answer your question, please make sure you have read all of the exam materials on the website here first. Many posts we get end up being answered with a screenshot of the relevant section.

Updated: 2024-01-08