Major omissions from this introduction to Software Engineering  portability;  more on modules;  more on formal methods  more on project management;  ergonomics;  specific problems & solutions for real-time; -- all available in later units.

INSE - Lecture 22 The Exam  An unusual unit  unusual exam  Open-book exams  A “ themed ” exam  This year ’ s theme

Unusual unit  unusual exam  Most units on this course have some sort of “ practical ” content  For INSE, that would take man- years –Students coming back from sandwich year often comment that it was the practical for this unit …  Therefore the unit has a “ thought exercise ” exam

So what does this exam test?  That you can apply “what you learned” –which depends on you having learned it fairly well (obvious?)  but it’s an unusual sort of learning, including new skills of thinking about S.E. situations…  so lets look at some learning theory...

“ Levels of learning ”  then the experience/ create levels repeat  creative “ doing ”  thinking about the “ doing ” => experience  straightforward “ doing ”  understanding  knowing (i.e. simple memory)  the big variation between different units in the same year is mainly in the sort of “ doing ”

The “ doing ” in this unit is about … … organizing the whole S.E. process in general … and … seeing problems coming in particular situations, so you can pre-empt them

Therefore... … an exam with a “ themed scenario ” so we can have questions about some realistic situation; … the exam is more about creative and insightful ideas than about memory, therefore an “ open-book ” exam.

Open-book exams

You can bring into the exam... … “ any reasonable quantity of books, handouts, or personal notes ”.  “ reasonable quantity ” means it will go on your exam desk - so the real limit is your own convenience.

Implications on your revision  You know the exam is not going to be a simple memory test! –e.g. memorizing chunks of the books or the handout notes is pointless  You know the exam is about understanding and creative insight –obviously, that builds on knowledge - then goes far beyond mere knowledge –so the key learning and revision is thinking about the subject, not memorizing

A “ themed scenario ” exam

A good theme... … will lead to possible questions in most of the material of the unit, but despite that … … inevitably, some parts of the unit will be obvious as likely question topics.

Capitalizing on knowing the theme As you revise … … bear in mind the theme and the implied issues … as you read a notes/book paragraph, THINK through the possible “quality vs excellence ” issues in it.

So when you arrive in the exam … there ’ s a good chance you ’ ll already have thought through some of the questions, or closely related issues; … for the other questions, you ’ ll have developed skills to think through those issues.

Merits of a themed exam:  Students leaving the exam comment that they feel it exercised their abilities well;  Revising for a themed exam develops the skill of analysing material from a specific point of view - students returning from sandwich comment that it was useful to have the start of that skill.

The web-site  The unit web-site gives  more detail of both the theme & the format of the exam  past papers and actual student answers to them  Reminder: the web-site is at

Tutorials next fortnight  Past paper brainstorms  With myself giving feedback on draft answers

Lecture+Tutorials week after next  Revision!  Bring (relevant?) questions to ask  If there are no sensible questions, then the sessions become rather feeble  If you don ’ t have questions, consider using your time better

After the exam  When available, provisional results go on the website  Anyone who doesn ’ t pass this time should look at the website about arrangements for support sessions

© C Lester

A last thought (especially if you ’ re going to do a sandwich year)

“ Co-operation ” - a key element of teamwork

© C Lester