ICS 31 • DAVID G. KAY • UC IRVINE • FALL 2017

Quizzes

Every week (usually late Sunday afternoon through Tuesday at 11:00 p.m.), a quiz will be available on EEE. The quizzes are self-scored; everyone who takes and submits it on EEE receives full credit.

The wrong way to use the quizzes is to glance over them, say, "Yeah, that looks okay," and just type anything related into the answer spaces on EEE. You'll still get the credit, but you won't get the experience of actually doing the problems, and that's what you'll need for the midterms, the final, and just basically learning the course material so you'll succeed in the next course. Instead, work out each problem; pretend it's a real quiz. Don't look up the answers in the book or on line; by the time the quiz comes around, you're supposed to be familiar with the topics. (If you're not, you might consider spending more time with the textbook or being a more actively questioning partner in the lab.)

(An even more foolish approach to self-grading is to answer random nonsense like "Zot! Zot! Zot!" to every question, giving them no thought at all. The wise student will take the time to work through the quizzes independently, recognizing that these are previews of exam questions and an excellent way to prepare, review, and assess one's mastery of the material before the stakes get higher. And the very most foolish way to approach self-graded quizzes is to assume that they're not very important and skip doing them on EEE entirely. If you don't do the quizzes on EEE each week, you'll be missing credit that almost everyone else is getting, and that has led some people to surprisingly low grades in the past.)

The text of the quizzes will be posted on this page; that way, if you should miss the EEE quiz period, you can still see the content of the quiz even if you don't get credit. Try not to miss any quizzes on EEE, though, because it's easy credit that everyone else is getting. If you happen to miss one, it's not a big deal, but the Tuesday deadline is firm; we cannot extend it for people who just got busy and forgot. (Even though the quiz contents are available on this page, be sure to open up the quiz on EEE before the Tuesday deadline; EEE won't give you credit if you try to open the EEE quiz after the window closes around 11:00.)

The answers will also be posted. The answers may even be posted before the EEE quiz period ends! Again, copying them into EEE doesn't get you more credit but it does short-cut the actual experience you need to develop actual proficiency. How do you know if your answer is correct if it doesn't match the printed answer exactly? Eventually you'll develop an understanding of what differences are important, but in the meantime, check with your TA or lab tutor, or (if the answer is Python code) simply try to run your answer and see if it behaves properly (or see if the assertions pass)

• Quiz 0: This quiz will be available late Sunday afternoon. Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, October 3. Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. [We intentionally posted this before the quiz formally closes so that people who have finished the quiz can see the answers. If you haven't taken the quiz, don't look yet. (Looking before taking the quiz won't raise your score; it will just deprive you of a useful source of study materials.)] Topics: Course policies and advice; simple Python statements in IDLE.
• Quiz 1: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, October 10). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. [We intentionally posted this before the quiz formally closes so that people who have finished the quiz can see the answers. If you haven't taken the quiz, don't look yet. (Looking before taking the quiz won't raise your score; it will just deprive you of a useful source of study materials.)] Topics: Expressions involving ints, floats, and strings; sequences of statements involving input and output; lists; namedtuples.
• Quiz 2: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, October 17). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: Indexing items in lists, accessing fields in namedtuples, lists of namedtuples, sort() method, functions (calling and returning, components of definition, reasons for using functions in designing programs), grading policies.
• Quiz 3: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (now through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, October 24). Quiz text for later reference (or to do the questions in advance); Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: functions with side effects or return values, flow of control with if/else and for, function definition, processing lists of namedtuples, policies on collaboration.
• Quiz 4: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, October 31). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: Flow of control with for, if, and function calls; recognizing data types required by Python expressions; calling defined functions where appropriate; coding with lists of namedtuples.
• Quiz 5: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (Sunday afternoon through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, November 7). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: programming with lists of namedtuples containing lists of namedtuples (restaurants and menus, students and courses), distinguishing data types and interpreting error messages.
• Quiz 6: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (available Sunday afternoon through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, November 14). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: String formatting, string processing, list processing.
• Quiz 7: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (available Sunday through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, November 21). Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: string manipulation, file I/O.
• Quiz 8: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (from Sunday afternoon through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, November 28. Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: identifying data types, functions as arguments, function reuse, mapping/filtering/accumulating, all in the context of the ICStunes program.
• Quiz 9: Take the quiz for self-scored credit at EEE (available Sunday through 11:00 pm on Tuesday, December 5. Quiz text for later reference; Quiz answers for still later reference. Topics: two-dimensional tables, dictionaries, sets.

Midterms

Below are copies of past ICS 31 midterms. The most effective way to use these to study or review is to block out the answers entirely and try to answer the questions "for real".

Fall 2012 First Midterm (with answers)

Fall 2012 Second Midterm (with answers)

Winter 2013 First Midterm (with answers)

Winter 2013 Second Midterm (with answers)

Fall 2013 First Midterm (with answers)

Fall 2013 Second Midterm (with answers)

Winter 2014 First Midterm (with answers)

Winter 2014 Second Midterm (with answers)

Fall 2014 First Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2014 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Winter 2015 First Midterm • (with answers)

Winter 2015 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2015 First Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2015 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Winter 2016 First Midterm • (with answers)

Winter 2016 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2016 First Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2016 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Spring 2017 First Midterm • (with answers)

Spring 2017 Second Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2017 First Midterm • (with answers)

Fall 2017 Second Midterm • (with answers)