Each exam is given during the first hour of each of the scheduled lab sections for this course. It begins promptly at the start of that hour and lasts for 50 minutes.
If you report to the Help Center on an exam day at the time that corresponds to the starting time of your lab section, you are guaranteed a seat at that time for the exam. If you show up at the time another lab section starts, we’ll let you take the exam if a seat is available; first come, first served, after all students enrolled in that section have been seated.
On exam days, the Help Center is strictly for the taking of the exams; you cannot do other work in that room that day. If you do not take an exam on the day it is scheduled, you cannot take it later unless you have the instructor’s specific approval, as discussed in Lab Exam Procedures and Grading.
Taking the exam requires three basic steps:
The ics-21 server folder
Many ics classes have folders on the server; ours is called ics-21. You get to it (most easily) by first clicking on the Start, then All Programs, then Instructional Files on Masterhit (it’s at the top of the menu). A window will appear; click on the ics-21 icon. Once you have opened the ics-21 folder, you access its folders in the same way as you do folders elsewhere (such as on the C: drive). Within ics-21 are three folders, Files, Lab Exams and Dropboxes; only the last two are used when taking lab exams.
The Lab Exams folder
Lab Exams contains one folder for each lab exam, labeled Lab Exam 1, Lab Exam 2, etc. Within each of these folders are several folders, each containing a version of the exam; they are labeled Version 1, Version 2, and so on. Each of these version folders is an Eclipse workspace with a project that contains the exam.
When taking a lab exam, you copy to your computer the Version folder the TA instructs you to use.
The Dropboxes folder
Dropboxes contains the folders into which you place your completed lab exams; these folders are collectively called dropboxes. When you turn in a lab, we often say you “turn it in to your dropbox,” which means you copy the project folder with your completed exam into the folder whose letter range contains the first letter or letters of your last name. For instance, if your last name starts with "J" you would place your exam into the dropbox folder whose label range contains "J" (in alphabetical order); for example, a folder called Last Names A-M
Dropboxes are protected so that only course staff can take documents out of them (thus protecting your submissions from tampering).
Arrive at an exam session (or, if retaking an exam, at the retake room at a designated retake time) on time. If you arrive to take an initial test after someone taking it has already left the room, or arrive at the test well after it has started, you might not be allowed to take the test at that time. If we did not have this rule, someone taking the test could look it over, leave the room and tell others very specifically what was on it, and then those others could come into the room to take the exam—not exactly fair! A Retake Coordinator will not let you take a retake when you arrive late for a retake exam, if s/he thinks seating you is likely to be disruptive to the folks already engaged in taking tests. If you are not allowed to take an initial exam, go to another of the day's lab exam times and take it then. If you do not take the exam at all on the day that it is given, contact the instructor; you may be granted permission to make up the test, as described in Missed Lab Exams part of the Lab Exams and Grading section of this Manual. If you are not allowed to take a retake exam, just go to another retake session to (re)take the test.
Take a seat. Put away everything except, if you wish, these instructions, blank scratch paper and a writing implement. These tests are otherwise closed book, closed note and especially closed neighbor: You are not to converse with another student during the test. You may not have out any other part of the Lab Manual. You may not use code other than what we provide to you at the test. You may not copy the test materials to a memory device or paper; you may not access the Web or any email; you may not listen to anything from any electronic device (e.g., no listening to music from your iPod).
Log on, using the provided login and password. Do not use your account!
Important note: During the test, the right mouse button is disabled (for security reasons). Be sure you know how to accomplish the tasks described here using the left mouse button and Windows menus.
When taking a lab exam, copy to the desktop the Version folder the TA (or Retake Coordinator) instructs you to use. You cannot do the lab exam directly on the server.
Open the project. Read and follow the instructions given in the INSTRUCTIONS!.txt window. Also, read the comments present in the source code files; they provide more particular information about that part of the program, information you will likely find very useful in completing the exam.
Note: If now, or any other time you open a file, Eclipse reports an "out-of-synch" condition, just choose File-->Refresh View to fix things.
In particular, place your name, ID number and UCInetID at the top of each Java source file where indicated , then, for every comment *** REPLACE THIS COMMENT WITH YOUR CODE ***, do just that: replace the comment with code that will make the method in which it appears perform all its chores and perform them correctly. You may add any private constants, variables and methods; however, you cannot change any of the provided public constants or method signatures, nor the contents of any method that does not have the comment *** REPLACE THIS COMMENT WITH YOUR CODE *** in its body. (If that last sentence sounded like a foreign language, don’t worry; it will make sense before the first test!)
Test your work by compiling and running it.
When you are ready to submit the exam (or when time is up), rename the project folder that’s inside the workspace—details on how to do this are below—and drag it onto the dropbox folder that you were assigned to use. If you place your work into the wrong folder, you will not be able to retrieve it; just put another copy of your work into the correct folder. We do not consider your exam turned in until it is placed into the correct drop box.
Important note: There is a Windows “feature” that can confuse one when making a submission. When you drag the folder over the dropbox and release the mouse button, a message may appear that warns you that once the folder is placed in the dropbox it cannot be accessed; it will ask if you wish to continue. Always click Yes. If you say No, Windows may place an empty folder into the drop box! You may be asked this question more than once; if so, answer Yes every time.
Here’s a trick for making sure your project folder ends up when intended: try to submit it again. If you try to submit a folder that has the same name as one already in the dropbox, the computer will print an error message and will not place your new folder in the dropbox. The original submission is thus in the dropbox, and you have confirmation that it is there.
It’s important that you read error and status messages, because, if you make a mistake, you could get one that really does indicate an error. For instance, if you try to submit your work to the folder Dropboxes, instead of your drop box folder within Dropboxes, you will get an error message that says you cannot store your work there. So you need to again submit your work, this time to the correct dropbox.
If you discover that you have made an error in your submitted work, reopen your folder and correct the problem. Resubmit your folder to your assigned dropbox, with the file name updated as discussed below.
When you are done, or time is called, log out by selecting Shut Down… from the Start menu, clicking on the button labeled Close all programs and log on as a different user? and then clicking on Yes.
Warning: Once you log out, all your work on the desktop will be lost, so be sure you submit your work to the dropbox before logging out!
If this is an initial test, leave the room; you cannot do other work in this room during lab exam time. If you are taking this test during a retake session, you may either log out and leave, or you may ask the Retake Coordinator to retake a different exam and repeat steps 4 to 10 above; for example, if you just retook Lab Exam 3, you now retake any exam other then Exam 3. You must leave when then session is over, regardless of whether you have finished your test(s).
Before renaming your Exam folder for submission, be sure you have exited Eclipse. If you rename the Exam folder while Eclipse is open, it sometimes is emptied, destroying all your work!
Go to the project folder that’s inside the provided workspace; it will be labelled LabExamx, where x is the number of the lab exam being taken (1 to 5).
For the initial taking of an exam (the one you take in your lab exam section) label the folder exam number-student id-I, where exam number is the number of the lab exam (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) and student id is your student id number. So, 1-12345678-I would indicate the original taking of lab exam 1 for the student with ID 12345678.
If you submitted the exam material in error, or wish to correct it, or think you might have submitted an empty folder, append a “C” onto the folder name (1-12345678-IC, for example) and submit that new folder. If you have to correct a correction(!) add another C onto the end (1-12345678-ICC) and submit it, and so on. If you submit more than one folder for an initial exam, we grade the work in the one that ends in the most C’s.
For a retake of an exam, label the folder exam number-student id-Rtimes retaken, where exam number and student id are as above and times taken is the number of times you have retaken this test. So, 3-12345678-R2 would indicate the second retake of lab exam 3 for the student with ID 12345678. As with the initial exam, indicate a folder with corrections by appending a C on the end of its name; again, we grade the work in the one that ends in the most C’s.
Remember, if you try to submit a folder that has the same name as one already in the dropbox, the computer will give you an error message and will not place your new folder in the dropbox (hence all this renaming of subsequent submissions).
We know this numbering is cumbersome, but it’s necessary to keep straight which exams you have taken, which submission we are to grade, and to keep your work separate from your classmates’ work. You are responsible for naming your folders correctly and having your name, id number, and UCInetID in your programf files. If a properly labeled folder from you is not found in your assigned dropbox, or your name is missing from the program files, we may not be able to figure out who took the test, and you may well end up with a "--" notation for it.