The following are standard instructions for CS 173 examlets. Please familiarize yourself with them ahead of the first exam. See this information about how to make up missed examlets, and also this information about disabilties and other special situations.
Please bring any apparent bugs or ambiguity to the attention of the proctors. Please feel free to ask the proctors for help with problems created by disabilities or by other circumstances unrelated to the exam content.
We'll use the front screen or board to post the ending time, turn-in instructions, bug fixes, and clarifications. If your vision is poor, please sit towards the front.
Make sure your name, netID, and discussion section are written legibly on the exam. If the exam has separate parts (e.g. two separate sheets) or you used extra paper or the final page seems loose, make sure this information is on each separate part.
After you turn in your exam, please leave the room until lecture restarts, so we can tell how many people are still working and don't have to worry about why you are (say) surfing the web on your phone.
We plan to scan exams for grading. Therefore your final answers must fit onto the front of the sheet, inside the marked boundaries.
The backs of sheets may be used as scratch paper.
Erasing and crossing off are both good ways to delete unwanted work. Just make sure we can easily read the result and figure out which parts are your final answer. If your paper is too messed up, ask the proctors for a fresh copy of that sheet.
Points may be deducted for solutions which are correct, but hard to understand, poorly explained, excessively hard to read, or excessively complicated. Use your best mathematical style and your best handwriting.
Questions asking for a short factual answer normally also require brief justification or work. Provide this unless there are clear indications to the contrary, e.g. question worth only a couple points, multiple choice checkbox. You can lose significant points for a short answer with no justification and, also, for leading up to the final conclusion but never actually stating it.
Unless explicitly requested by the problem, it is not necessary to simplify or calculate out complex constant expressions such as 0.715 or 7! or log3 2. However, you should simplify expressions such as logarithms inside exponents (e.g. 3log2 n).
These are closed-book exams. You may not consult with other students. You may not use notes or electronic devices. Exception: watches are ok if they are simple timekeeping devices.
If you have to do something that could be misinterpreted, e.g. pick up a dropped eraser, silence a cell phone, do it conspicuously and/or with the help of a proctor.
Electronic devices must be turned off. Notes and electronic devices must be put away out of sight (e.g. in your bag) or well out of reach (e.g. turned off and under the chair in front of you).
Foam earplugs are ok, but headphones and earbuds are not allowed.
If you need to look up your discussion time (e.g. on your smart phone), do this in front of a proctor at the turn-in table.
If your phone rings because you forgot to turn it off, it's ok to get it out briefly to silence it.
You may not leave the room and then come back and continue working on your exam. If an emergency (e.g. upset stomach) forces you to leave before you have had time to finish, turn in your partial work and we'll schedule you to take a makeup. (This rule doesn't apply to the final exam.)
Obviously, you may not look at the exams of other students, share answers, and so forth. But, also, please do not do things which look like cheating. For example, don't talk to your neighbor during the exam even if the topic is innocent. Don't compare answers until you've left the exam room.
Please do not sit next to your friends during the examlet. It is very easy for others to misunderstand close friendship as cheating, causing unnecessary worries and investigations. Do not attempt to defeat methods for randomizing seating.
If we see clear evidence of cheating, obviously we'll file an academic integrity charge. If your behavior is merely suspicious, we we may take actions like warning you, reseating you, or aborting your exam and having you do a makeup.