There will be two tests and a final exam. The tests will take place during class time on February 11 (MC 4040 and MC 4042) and March 15 (RCH 112).
The final exam will be scheduled by the registrar's office.
The first test covers all material on regular languages, up to but not including the discussion of context-free grammars.
The second test covers up to but not including the material on the pumping lemma for context-free grammars. The emphasis will be on material not covered by the first test.
The final exam covers all course material, except anything explicitly exempted in lecture. The emphasis will be oen material not covered by the tests.
Students frequently ask if exam questions will look like homework questions. The answer is yes and no, but mostly no. It is expected that you have a lot more time to complete homework questions than exam questions, so you shouldn't expect answers to questions on exams to be as long as answers to questions on assignments. I try to give a mixture of questions, requiring different levels of understanding. Here are some examples of the forms of questions that I have used in the past:
For each subquestion, mark the appropriate box to indicate whether or not it is possible to create what is specified. If you check "Possible", give an example that satisfies the conditions (no further justification is required). If you check "Impossible", briefly justify your choice. An example might be "A one-state DFA D such that L(D)={a}".
For each of the following statements, mark the appropriate box to indicate whether it is true for all, none, or some of the specified A's. You must briefly justify your answer with an argument or examples in order to get full marks. An example might be "For a regular expression A, each string in L(A) is of the same length."
For each subquestion, mark the appropriate box to indicate whether or not what is specified exists or does not exist. If you check``Exists'', give an example and argue why your example fits the description. If you check ``Does Not Exist'', provide a brief, convincing justification.
For each of these types of questions, most of the marks (and in some cases, all) are allotted to the justification.
In order of priority, make sure you understand all lecture material, all readings, all previous self-tests, all previous assignments, all previous problem session problems, and all previous tests. I will make clear in class what parts of the book I expect you to read on your own; for the most part, the textbook serves as an alternative presentation to material in class. For previous assignments, tests, and problem sessions, it is highly recommended that you read the model solutions, even if you received a perfect score on your work. The model solutions may provide you with an alternative way of solving a problem, perhaps one that yields a more succinct solution (and hence a technique that may be very valuable on a test or exam). If you have more time available, you can try to work through examples found in the textbook (or other books on the subject -- but be careful about differences in notation and definitions) -- read the problem, come up with your own solution, and then check it against the solution in the book.
I do not recommend studying by working problems from previous exams from this course, and especially not by asking course personnel to solve the problems for you. Different instructors may teach material at a different speed or in a different order, so you might panic yourself by seeing material that hasn't yet been covered in this offering. Exam questions may draw from knowledge students may have gained during the completion of an assignment given that offering; if you haven't done the assignment, you might find the material disturbingly difficult. If you have done all that was recommended in the previous paragraph and still have time available, your time would be better spent coming up with you trying to come up with your own exam questions.