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 disability accomodations.

General rules

This is a closed-book exam: no books, no notes, no looking on the internet, no consulting other people (e.g. friends). Scratch paper is ok, but it must start off blank. 

The CBTF will provide you with a basic scientific calculator, but a calculator will rarely be useful and will never be required.

Foam earplugs are ok, but headphones and earbuds are not allowed.

For open-answer questions, your answer must be typed directly into the answer box. You cannot upload scans of handwritten work. Cut and paste between editing windows may be possible but can result in messed-up formatting or cause the exam window to lock up.

Save your work frequently, particularly for open-answer questions. When the clock runs out at the end of your exam, PrairieLearn will autosubmit saved work, but unsaved work will be lost.

Doing the exam

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.

Open-answer 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. the question is worth only a couple points. You can lose significant points for a short answer with no justification. You can also lose points for leading up to the final conclusion but never actually stating it.

Starting with Examlet 3, LaTeX formatting is required when writing equations that contain elements (e.g. exponents, summations, math symbols) beyond ordinary plaintext.

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. 3^{log₂ n}).

Use whitespace to make your math easy to read, e.g. use paragraphs and linebreaks, do not make any individual equation very long.

Regrades, broken questions, etc.

See the Help tab on the main page for for information on regrades and broken questions.

Academic integrity

When taking examlets, you must follow the CBTF policies. Violations of CBTF academic integrity policies are violations of course academic integrity policies. Please see the student code for general university guidelines.

Exam contents may be discussed with other students only after both of you have taken the examlet. If you are confused about a question or how it was graded, ask the course staff (e.g. at office hours or via a regrade request).

A single cheating offence on an examlet will result in an undroppable zero on the examlet in question. A second cheating offence will typically result in a failing grade for the course.