CS560 Midterm Exam. March 15, 2001
The Test
Here is the exam. Four questions. 75 minutes.
Answers and Grading Guide
My Comments and Overall Grading information
This was one of my more difficult exams. Nonetheless, here are
my baseline grades. Rather than grade on a curve, I like to come up
with baseline grades per question for A and B levels, and then go from there.
- Question 1: This was a straightforward book question, that
should have been like falling off a log if you studied.
- Base 'B' grade: 7 points.
- Base 'A' grade: 9 points.
- Question 2: This was a more difficult question, requiring that
you studied the kthread implementation lectures.
- Base 'B' grade: 6 points -- you get the basic vibe of each longjmp
call, and perhaps its return location, but miss everything else.
- Base 'A' grade: 9 points -- you get the vibe plus some more specific
detail.
- Question 3: More memorization, plus the ability to spit out
what is important in a terse manner.
- Base 'B' grade: 6 points -- you get the 0.5 for 1/2 sentences, plus
one of the two important points of the definition.
call, and perhaps its return location, but miss everything else.
- Base 'A' grade: 8 points -- you get most everything.
detail.
- Question 4: This was the killer. It had applied book learning,
plus code reading and a little creativity.
- Base 'B' grade: 6 points -- you got the first deadlock example, plus
the starvation answer, which was pretty easy.
- Base 'A' grade: 8 points -- you also got some vibe points for
the proof and a charity point for saying something reasonable in
part 2.
That gives 25 points for the lowest B, and 34 points for the lowest A.
Given that, here are my breakdowns for grades:
- 37 - 44: A+ -- fantastic!
- 34 - 36: A
- 31 - 33: B+
- 25 - 30: B
- 23 - 24: C+
- 20 - 22: C
- 16 - 19: D
- Under 16: F
Yes, that means that there are some F's, and if you are one of them, you
may need to think about dropping the class, especially if your labs
are not solid.
