Annotated Answer Guide and Comments

• This document contains what I call annotated answers. You get the correct answer(s), a discussion of common wrong answers, and occasionally a mini-lecture. If I take the time to write it, you might want to consider reading it. Otherwise, Darth Hugue may make a personal visit to your in-box. The remaining points here deal with how to make the best use of your quizzes-the problems, the answers, and the experience of test taking.

• Always consider the instructions as part of a the test. How do you know what you are supposed to do without reading them.

• Do as many points as you can, and don't expect to finish. But, get used to how long it takes you to do these problems. Exam problems that are worth four (4) points each are about the difficulty of the four point questions on the quizzes.

• As a rule, explain your work. An incorrect answer without explanation might not be rich enough to afford partial credit. We read what you write! And, as you will see as you read this document, we also take math errors into account (typically half (or less) or the standard deduction for not knowing whatever skill or concept is the explicit target of the test question). And, as discussed in disgusting detail, I try to track mistakes and deductions in a way that doesn't make you pay twice for the same error. That is, it is better for me to find you wrong the same way repeatedly, than to have you make what appear to be random errors in answering the same question two differing ways. Self-consistency is essential.

• About the number of points on the quizzes. A score of 30 is legislated as a perfect score on the quiz. Based on the relative difficulty of the material and the manner in which I present, I will give you more questions and an opportunity to earn and keep more than 30 points per quiz. The main reason I do this is to encourage you to think and risk being wrong, rather than giving up after you can't do one or two problems, and believe that you can't pass the quiz. Counting overages and extra credit, this quiz had 38 points possible. Plus, you can drop a quiz. Note, too, that the average on this quiz was around 25-which is very high. Now, this was the easiest material you will see all semester. Please don't study less for the next quiz because you did well-the material gets progressively harder. So, keep up the good work!

• In the large, bad quiz grades have never prevented a student of mine from passing the course. They are meant to be a learning experience, just like homework, and are given to keep you from trying to cram for my final exams. So, giving you a few extra points is a small price to pay for me to have this chance to encourage you to keep both the labs and the technical material not related to them in your weekly study plan¹

• I have taught this course more than 20 times in the last 10 years-not from the CMU notes, of course, but, still, I have a clue what goes on in computers. Last year, I learned much of the material from scratch. This semester, I'm trying to supply you with the resources you need to get through the course if the book and the entire INTERNET aren't enough to make some of this stuff clear to you. And, I recognize that when you don't know what you are looking for, or even how to ask for the specific help you need, it's extremely hard to do a search, much less recognize the answer when you find it. That's why I try to provide you with direct ties to other courses, and why I bring in all kinds of examples.

  However, here is a rule of thumb-if I am spending more time on this course than you are, and you aren't getting perfect scores on everything, then perhaps you need to increase your commitment to at least match, if not exceed mine. For example, I've spent more than 8 hours with this lovely set of annotated answers and mini-lectures-correcting, composing, and then repeating the same process with the contents. There are probably still errors in it-my apologies-I too can not always see my own errors, and it took me 4 hours more to track down two pesky errors that kept the file from being processed correctly by the typesetting program.

  I realize that many computer scientists are non-readers. However, you must correct that problem for success in the real world. You should consider reading these annotated answers in fits and starts-maybe one part of problem 2 at a time, for example. Then try again later to work out the questions on the quiz...before the midterm or final, perhaps...to make sure that you pick up the stuff that I claim to think is important. And, maybe analyzing how you take quizzes and what you think of when you are doing the problems will be of assistance, as well. My point is that I have written down nearly everything I could find in my brain regarding this quiz and the material it contains. So, please take advantage of it while my brain is active-later in the semester, I won't have the energy for this.

• If you are still here, thanks for reading. I hope you find something you didn't know-about yourself, about the course, or about the fact that, yes, my course can be extremely strange. I care more about your learning how you learn, and how long or how well you can use important stuff in this course-including how to get as much as you can out of the courses available to you at UMCP-than I care about your GPA or your individual grade (as long as you pass, that is). And, if you can't pass my course on the first whack, trust me, I will work with you in figuring out if it's the major or you or both.
• Still here? Thanks. I hope that you continue to seek knowledge, if not understanding, in this course, in your major, and in your career.