really? last minute cramming is the tried and true method. I'm quite sure it pre-dates the Neolithic Era. At any rate, it's how i got my degree


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Hi jwenting,

Most of the action on this thread, which I started, has been from other more experienced people who have posed questions. However, I really want to answer your question as I heartily agree with your sentiment. My real focus has been on how to perform in an exam. I am actually an avid programmer, albeit in the early stages of my career, and I really enjoy the material! I have worked really hard and I think I will do well. However, I find that I consistently underperform in exams for two reasons:

1 - I think exam conditions really affect my ability to think.
2 - Writing code on paper is so different to the process of working on a computer - where you compile, find errors and then try again until you get it right - that I believe I really don't demonstrate what I know.

As a result, I have really wanted to go in and show what I know. So, in answer to your question, I heartily agree that learning and understanding is what it is all about, however, due to the artificial nature of the examination, it sometimes helps to prepare for that process itself. Your reputation and number of posts speak for itself, so I humbly submit that I am a first year who wants to perform as well as possible in an exam environment. Thanks for your time in reading the thread anyway.

Kind regards,

Daniel

writing code on paper is little different from writing it on a computer when you get used to it.
Maybe I'm getting old but it's how I actually learned programming. We used a mainframe and each student had a grand total of 5 minutes of computer time (CPU time that is) for the entire semester, so we'd better make darn sure that our code worked before we started to type it in.

And that's what it all comes down to, practice. There's no substitute for experience in this, and trying to find shortcuts isn't going to work very well.

As to your first point, I recognise myself in that. You're nervous, in unfamiliar surroundings, and that questionaire can determine your future. Not the best situation to give peak performance, and it usually shows in my results (job interviews are just the same).
But there too experience works. Do a lot of practice exams.
And what also works is to try and be as relaxed as you can for the exam. Don't drink alcohol or eat high-caloric food in the day or days leading up to the exam. Some people suggest yoga to help clear the mind (I've not tried this).
If your path to the exam location suffers from severe traffic jams, try taking public transport. Plan your journey to arrive at least half an hour early, gives you some peace of mind in case of delays.
Drink water before you start, and do go to the toilet as well (nothing worse than getting uncomfortable halfway through ).

As you see most of that has nothing to do with the actual content of the exam, and will work just as well on any examination (or indeed job interview), as long as you are confident that you have what it takes to pass (and yes, the last several hours before the exam you WILL feel you know nothing at all, but if you actually do know it and can calm yourself it will come back when needed).

Cramming in fact will often make it worse. There are solid scientific reasons for that.
What cramming does is pump knowledge into shortterm memory without imprinting it in longterm memory.
What that means is that the knowledge will be there "at the top of your brain" for 24-48 hours after which it will be gone again.
That's not going to do you any good if you need more than 24 hours to learn for the exam, and quite apart from that will not leave you with a level of confidence in your skill.
Of course it also doesn't actually teach you anything, so that grade (if you pass) will be worthless as it won't reflect your actual knowledge.

aha. so that's where my Signals and Systems class went...

Some colleges here have open book exams to discourage students from last minute cramming. A person can bring any number of books with him into the examination room. The questions however are such that only a person with complete understanding of the concepts is able to answer.

I would suggest you to get proper sleep the day before the examination. Some students have the habit of studying very late at night (till 2 or 3am) the night before. It only makes the matter worse. You will end up in the examination hall tired and will not be able to recollect much.

true.

i found that i often did my best when, even though I felt completely unprepared, i just said F- it and went to bed instead of pulling an all-nighter.

One of the most relaxed exam experiences I ever had was walking into that room and finding out that it was an exam I'd not specifically studied for.
I'd mixed up the dates of 2 exam sessions, the one I thought I was sitting was a month later, oops.

After the first few minutes of terror I resigned to the situation, decided to make the best of it, and completed the exam with time to spare.
Passed it too with a pretty nice score. Maybe not what I could have gotten without going over the material one last time in the days running up to it, but a good score nevertheless.

jwenting, thanks for the feedback and the pointers on general approaches to exams and interviews. That sort of advice is also great for interviews, as you say, so it could prove invaluable.

It's very interesting that you raise the issue of learning by writing and then, with limited time on a computer, having to rely totally on the correctness of your work beforehand. I can only speak for myself but, for me, one of the great attractions of programming has been the fact that persistence is (ultimately!) rewarded, ie. if you just keep going you will find that silly error. Furthermore, I find myself working through the problem as I develop the solution. As a result of this, I tip my hat to those of you who had to not only get all the syntax correct, but also be sure of the fact that the program was going to do exactly what you wanted!

The difference in being able to simply press compile: "Oops, missing a brace!" versus "Oh well, that's my CPU time gone!" is pretty incredible in our lifetimes. Perhaps, in this context, the discipline of having to work on paper is good for my development as a programmer!

My coding is done equally on paper and on the computer. Its much easier to do the math on paper before finally typing the program.