Homework #8: Final Exam Questions (100 points)
(Due 5/12/09)
Create 3 questions appropriate for use on the final exam of this course, along with complete
answers. Justify or explain your answers, using ideas or information you learned from the course readings
and/or lecture slides. Wherever possible and appropriate, give the source
of any such ideas or information, including the
title/date, page number, URL, or slide number. The questions must be answerable based only on course material
(readings or slides) and irrefutable common knowledge (i.e. Baltimore
is a city in Maryland, etc.). Use the midterm as a guideline for appropriate difficulty and length.
It is ok to cover material in the readings that were not discussed
in class. It is also ok to cover material covered by guest
lecturers.
I will attempt to construct the final exam with your submissions from this homework. However,
I do not promise to use these questions. As soon as you all have submitted this homework, we will
anonymously post all the questions - thus making a study guide. And if the questions are good, then you
can expect that several of them will appear on the final exam (possibly in edited form). We will not
disclose if or how many of the student questions will appear on the final exam before the exam.
Grading of this homework will be based on the level of quality, clarity, and appropriateness of the
questions as well as the correctness and completeness of the answer.
In making these questions for the homework, you
demonstrate your knowledge by finding questions that really dig into the important concepts of the class.
For this homework, questions that require synthesis and complete understanding of the material will get more credit
than those that rely on superficial details or are not in line with the goals of the course. Also, aim to
have your question be clear and concise enough that nobody will misunderstand it or lose excessive time just
trying to understand the question.
As you're doing this, you might think about what makes an exam question effective
at gauging students' understanding of the material. This is a good exercise and study tactic for
studying for any exam in any class - thinking from the perspective of the person creating the test.
Aim for a level of difficulty such that well-prepared
students will be likely to get it right, but unprepared students in the class would not get it. You can
make your questions a little bit fun, as long as it wouldn't confuse or distract people taking the exam.
Submission
Submit a Word, Open Office, RTF or Text document to the TA by email with the subject: "CMSC 434-hw8". Since we'll be aggregating these, please do not send a PDF this time.
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