CSCI 141 - Exam Instructions and Guidelines

Time and Location

The exam will be taken during our usual class time, 9:00am - 9:50am.

You will take the exam in a CSCI lab designated to your lab section (CRN):

I recommend arriving and logging in at least a few minutes before the exam begins. The exam unlocks on Canvas at 8:59am, so you will have more time to code if you are logged in and have the test environment started up before class.

Downloading the exam code package

Under the exam assignment on Canvas, you will find a link to the exam code package, which is a .zip file. Download this file and extract it; this should extract the exam code files into a folder.

When downloading using Firefox on Linux, clicking on the zip file in Firefox’s download box (which pops up when the download completes) will not extract the zip file automatically. You will need to open the location the file was downloaded to (you can do this by clicking the folder icon next to the completed download), then double click the zip file to extract it.

When downloading under Windows, extract the zip file by right clicking the downloaded file, selecting “Extract to…”, and choosing a location to unzip the files to.

Skeleton code

For each problem, you will find a file named p#.py, where # is the problem number. Unlike POTDs, the instructions for each program, including sample outputs, are provided in the code file itself. Please be sure to add your name as the Author in the comment at the top of each program.

Tests

The exam code package also includes test programs, named p#_test.py, which are simlar to those provided for POTDs. Your exam grade will depend on the fraction of the test cases passed. A comment at the top of each program indicates how many points that problem is worth. Under normal circumstances, those points will be earned based directly on the fraction of test cases passed, but I reserve the right to modify the tests or weighting if I think it will make the grading more fair.

If you are stuck getting some tests to pass for a program, consider whether you should switch to working on another problem.

Submission

You will submit your programs to Canvas. Important things to note:

• You can resubmit any number of times. Only your latest submission will be graded, so make sure that each submission includes all of your programs.
• Do not submit the test programs.
• Do not change the filenames of the programs you submit: make sure the submitted programs have the same filename as the corresponding skeleton code file.

The exam is due at 9:50am. Following this deadline, there is a 9-minute grace period, after which Canvas submission locks 9:59am. No submissions will be accepted after this time.

The Test Environment

You will work in a restricted testing environment that provides a Thonny window and a Firefox browser window. You will not be able to open other programs. Access to generative AI tools is blocked, but access to the internet in general is available to you - see the Guidelines below.

Starting up the test environment

1. Open a terminal window: click Activities in the top-left corner of the screen, then clicking the Terminal icon in the bar at the bottom.

2. Type and enter the following command:

   exam.sh

3. The test environment will take a few seconds to start up. You should see a Firefox browser window and a Thonny window open, a few seconds apart.

   • The first time you run the test environment, you may need to enable the Program Arguments box in Thonny. Go to the View menu and make sure Program Arguments is checked.

4. Log into Canvas in Firefox, go to the exam assignment, and download the linked exam package, which is a zip file.

5. Open (or double-click) the downloaded zip file to extract the skeleton and test code, open the files in Thonny. You can open a File Browser window showing where the zip file was downloaded by clicking the folder icon next to the completed download item in the downloads box that pops up at the top right.

When you are finished

1. Submit your Python files to the exam assignment on Canvas. Do not submit the test programs, and make sure the filenames for your solutions match the provided skeleton code filenames.
2. Exit out of Thonny to close down the test environment, and you can now close any remaining windows and log out of the machine.

Some notes about the test environment:

• The provided Firefox browser is the only way to access the internet; you will not be able to access the internet from any other programs during the exam period.
• Any browser windows you have open when you start the test environment will be automatically closed. Be sure you’ve saved any work before launching the test environment.
• Do not close Firefox or Thonny during the exam. If you have closed Firefox or Thonny, here are the instructions to recover; any work you’ve saved will not be lost.
  • If you closed Firefox, you will need to restart the test environment. Save any work in Thonny, then exit Thonny. Find the Terminal window you used to start the test environment and re-run the exam.sh command.
  • If you closed Thonny, close Firefox, find the Terminal window you used to start the test environment, press Ctrl+C, then re-run the exam.sh command to restart the test environment.

Guidelines

You are allowed:

• To write, test, and debug your code in Thonny (no other IDEs are allowed)

• Access to the course webpage and anything linked from it

• Access to any code you’ve authored for this course

• “Read-only” use of the web:

  • OK: Internet access for Python documentation (including unofficial sources) is OK
  • OK: Searching and reading webpages
  • Not OK: use of tools for code completion, generative AI, or code generation
  • Not OK: typing or pasting anything into a webpage (aside from search engine queries)
  • Not OK: copy/pasting, or typing verbatim, anything longer than a single line of code from a webpage
  • Not OK: communicating with anyone except the proctor or me during the exam.