About the Exam

Some Logistics

• if you miss it, you get a 0
• the best indication of the types of questions you'll see is the list of sample exam questions
• expect the exam to to be similar to the easier homework (questions.py and some of the basic programming problems…) and handouts
• expect about 15 questions (give or take a couple) total
• you'll have the entire class period for the exam

Types of Questions

Short Answer

• What's a while loop?
• Name some built-in functions and what they do?

Guided Programming Questions

Instructions step you through each statement, you write it…

• create a variable named noun, set it equal to "aardvark"
• create a variable named adjective, set it equal to "agitated"
• use string interpolation to put the two together in a sentence "the agitated aardvark acted awkwardly"

Answer Questions About a Small Sample of Code

(We've seen this before in our quiz.) Some examples:

What's the output… or is there an error?

s = "foo" +  int("5")
print(s * 2)

What type is a?

a = input("enter a number")
print(a)

Questions About Sample Code Continued

What will make the loop run/not run

response = input()
while response == 'go':
	print("going")

Is there an error? How do you fix the error?→

s = "10"
n = 20 + s
print(n)

n = 20 + int(s)

Questions About Sample Code Continued Some More

What's the output of…→

for i in range(50, 59, 2)
	if i == 56:
		print("foo")
	else:
		print("bar")
	print("baz " + str(i))

Fill in the Blanks

Use a while loop to count backwards from 10 to 0 by 2's

count = 
while               :
   print(         )    
   #what else goes here?

Obviously, Write Some Code

Expect to write…

• if / elif / else
• while and for loops (including counting, summing and sentinel variables)
• modules
• strings, ints, floats, bools and associated operations
• all of that nested within each other (if statements in while loops, for example)
• user input, for example: keep adding numbers that a user inputs, until the user enters quit

There Are X Errors in This Code

Read over a few lines of code; find and fix the syntax and logical errors.

#  We're just counting from 1 through 10
for num in range(10)
	print("we're just counting " + i)

Evaluate Boolean Expressions / Truth Tables

• truth tables for more complex expressions, such as p or q or r
• True and False or not False
• 10 % 5 == 1 or 1 != "hello"
• etc.

Exam Topics

Materials Covered

• the exam content is from:
  • the slides
  • the modules
  • the homework
  • … the corresponding readings from Starting Out with Python
• if it was not covered in class, homework, or the modules/quizzes, it will not be in the exam

Topics from Slides

• all topics in the slides from classes 1 through 10
• check out the definitions in the slides (they're usually bolded)
• check out the sample problems in the slides
• the built-in functions that were in the homework (and that appeared in slides that we did not go over) may be in the exam
• the following topics from the slides (and modules) will not be in the exam:
  • turtle (was only in the online modules)

Test-Taking Strategies

General Strategies

• don't get bogged down on a single problem, jot down a potential answer and go back to it later
• partial credit is given; don't leave a question blank, even if it's just notes or half an attempt
• double check your work

Sample Code

• go through the code line by line
• write down the values you suspect will be in the variables
• if there's something that requires user input, try going through the code with sample input

Code from Scratch

• plan out what your going to do first
• ask yourself questions, like - will there be data stored, are there repeated actions, etc.
• if there is example output, run through your finished code with the sample data to make sure it works

Any Questions About Material or Exam Format?

Review

We have a few options. Which one do you want to do first?

• suggest topics?
• alternate working on sample exam questions and going over answers
• go over review slides
  • variables, expressions, statements
  • operators and types (int, bool, etc)
  • boolean logic
  • conditionals / if statements
  • loops / while and for
  • functions