CS3006N Revision Class

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CS3006N Revision Class

• James King
• 4 May 2008

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Topics

• Exam structure
• What to revise
• What is not in the exam
• Exam technique
• The mark per minute rule
• Little words matter
• How not to answer a question

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Exam Structure

• The exam is in one part
• Answer 3 questions out of 4
• Each question is 33 marks so the exam is out of
  99
• If you answer all 4 questions only the first 3
  will be marked even if the second question could
  have got more marks.
• Each question starts on a new page

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What to Revise question 1

• Question one is entirely Rogers Process
• You will be asked to
• Take a set of concrete classes ands apply Rogers
  process
• Demonstrate polymorphic method calls etc.

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What to Revise question 2

• Question 2 OOP theory
• You will not be asked to write a complete Java
• constructors
• Abstract classes
• Overloading, overriding, polymorthism

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What to Revise question 3

• Question 3 Testing and programming in the large
• You will be asked to think and problem solve
• 2 and 3 tier architectures
• Web applications vs traditional applications
• Performance of web applications
• Discuss potential problems with writing a web
  application to perform a certain task
• Discuss potential problems of the request reply
  protocol
• Discuss sessions and cookies

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What to Revise question 4

• Question 4 Architectures
• Client server
• Request reply
• Publish and subscribe

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Exam technique 1 mark 1 minute

• The exam is 2 hours ( 120 minutes ) and contains
  100 marks. Thats 1 mark per minute which is
  standard for an exam.
• So if a question is worth 3 marks don't spend 10
  minutes on it and don't write 2 pages answering
  it!

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Exam technique Order of questions

• You do not have to do each exam question in
  order. So if you are not sure about question 1 do
  question 2 first.
• Make sure we know which question each answer is
  for! If we can't tell you will not get the mark!

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Exam technique Diagrams

• Sometimes diagrams can save lots of writing but
  make sure we can understand the diagram!
• Label it and make sure the diagram answers the
  question
• For example what messages are sent between a web
  browser and client to fetch a web page. What
  order are they sent? ( 4 marks)
• This is not a good answer!
• What is it? Two rectangles with two arrows in
  between them? Does this answer the question? NO
• LABEL YOU DIAGRAMS

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Exam technique Diagrams

• This is a good answer
• The client sends the request first
• The server sends the reply
• This is a good answer

1. Request
Client
Server
2. Reply
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Exam technique Wording of questions
I don't want to know how a cookie works or what
are its disadvantages or advantages I want to
know what it is used for!

• What is a cookie?
• Cookies can only store 4K of data but you can
  have more than one cookie per client
• A cookie is a way of storing data on a per client
  basis. The information in a cookie stays alive
  between requests

• This tells me what I want to know.
• Mark for stores information for each client
  separately
• 1. Mark for information does not die between
  requests

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Exam technique Wording of questions
This does not tell me that you understand how
cookies allow the client and server to remember
things

• How does a cookie work?
• A cookie is a way of storing data on a per client
  basis. The information in a cookie stays alive
  between requests
• A cookie is created by the server and sent to the
  client as part of the request. Next time the
  client makes a request it passes the cookie back
  to the server

This is clear, and could also have been explained
in a diagram. But the diagram must make all the
points clearly
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Exam technique Wording of questions
This answer does not mention sessions at all and
does not compare them NO MARKS even though the
information is part of the answer

• Compare Cookies to Sessions
• Cookies can only store 4K of data but you can
  have more than one cookie per client
• A client can have more than one cookie but only
  one session. A session can store lots of objects
  a cookie can only store up to 4K of data

This compares and makes the differences clear
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Exam technique Wording of questions
I don't care about this! Half of what was written
gets no marks gt waste of writing and time.

• What are the disadvantages of Cookies?
• Cookies can only store 4K of data but you can
  have more than one cookie per client
• They can only store 4K. They can make
  communication slower because each request or
  reply will contain all the cookies for that client

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How to not answer an exam question Keyword
search

• Its very easy to not read the question and just
  focus on individual keywords
• Cookies are one way of storing data between
  requests what is another way?
• Cookies store data on a per client basis.

The keyword search says what is a cookie!
ZERO marks Answer The Question
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How to not answer an exam question Brain dump

• Its very easy to focus on one word and write
  everything you know about it
• Would you use the ApplicationContext to store a
  shopping basket? (1 mark)
• Application context allows you to store data
  which is global to all clients. This allows you
  to implement shared things such as a hit counter
  or a keep a total of the number of clients or
  purchases made. The application context can only
  store object but you can put simple things like
  an int into an object and store that object
  ltblah blah blahgt
• NO

Lots of effort 0 MARKS
Little effort 1 mark!
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How to not answer an exam question
Over-polishing

• Its tempting to try to write the perfect answer
  to a question, to make sure you definitely get
  the marks for it.
• Ask yourself which is easier and which will get
  you the most marks
• To polish part of a question to get every
  possible mark out of it like squeezing the last
  drop of juice from a lemon
• Do more questions reasonably well