Dear students,
As you already know, our midterm exam is this Friday, November 6.
The exam will become accessible on Moodle at exactly 15h15. It will last 2h15, so it will end at 17h30.
To accommodate the challenges of an online exam, we will leave the submission open until exactly 17h45. Consider the last 15 minutes as a grace period. Use it wisely. Don’t wait until the last minute to submit.
During the exam, you will be able to ask for clarifications on Discord. To ask a question, join any of the room1-room12 voice channels that happens to be empty. The moment we see you, one of us will join you to help. As soon as we answer your question, we will ask you to leave the voice channel.
We will also use Discord to make exam-related announcements if needed, e.g., give an important clarification. For this, we will create a textual channel called “midterm-announcements.” Please monitor it during the exam.
We expect each of you to work on your own, without interacting with each other or searching for answers online (unless you are accessing resources from the course's Moodle page).
There will be 3 problems, worth the following number of points:
- Problem 1 (multiple choice): 5 points
- Problem 2: 30 points
- Problem 3: 15 points
You will have two options for completing the exam:
- Online, through a Moodle module called “Midterm exam (50 points): online version.”
The format of this module will be identical to that of the “Mock midterm exam: online version”: There will be three links, each corresponding to a problem. Clicking on a link will take you to the corresponding problem, which will be structured as a Moodle quiz. You will need to “attempt the quiz,” “finish attempt,” and “submit all and finish.” You may submit multiple attempts, but only the last one will count.
In Problem 1, you will need to choose a single best answer to each question.
In Problems 2 and 3, to answer each question you will need to write a short piece of text. You can do that either by entering your text in a provided text box, or by uploading a file that includes your text. We encourage you to use the text box, but do what comes easier to you. - Offline, through a Moodle module called “Midterm exam (50 points): print & scan version.”
The format of this module will be identical to that of the “Mock midterm exam: print & scan version”: There will be two links, one for downloading the exam, and one for uploading your completed exam. How you complete the exam is up to you: you could print it, complete it by hand, and scan or take pictures of the outcome; or you could edit the exam on your computer/tablet. Anything is OK as long as your answers are clearly visible/legible on the file you upload.
If you choose this option, please make sure you upload your exam before submission closes. For fairness to the other students, we will not be able to accept exams sent to us even a minute after 17h45 through another means, e.g., by email. The exam will normally finish at 17h30. Use the extra 15 minutes to make sure you submit properly.
There will not be any negative points, i.e., by providing an answer you can only gain points, never lose points.
When you give an answer, please justify it. This way, we will be able to see how you think and give you points, even if you don't provide a fully correct answer.
Finally, remember that the midterm will count only if you do well in it, and the grades will be adjusted to the difficulty of the exam. Do not be disheartened if a question seems too hard. Just skip ahead, answer all the questions that you feel comfortable with, then come back to the difficult question and do your best.
Best of luck,
Your teaching team.
