End-quarter Assessment

See About Assessments for an overview of our plan for assessments.

  • June 7: We have posted the end-quarter self-assessment materials.
  • May 31: The end-quarter assessment will not be used as makeup; instead makeup task will be the (optional) Assignment 7.
  • May 24: The information on this page has been updated to reflect the newly revised End-Quarter Assessment plan that we have developed in light of recently released university guidelines on permissible Week 10 activity.

Logistics

  • The end-quarter assessment is now fully optional. Completion is no longer a required component that will factor into your course grade. We will rescale assignments, section, and midquarter assessment to cover the weight originally designated for the end-quarter assessment.
  • There will be two components, and you have the option to complete one, both, or none of the components.
    • The first component will consist of a BlueBook diagnostic. The diagnostic will be written in form of a traditional 3-hour exam as given in ordinary times. You can complete all problems under time to practice with exam-like conditions or just work selected problems at your own pace and to a level of polish that meets your needs. There is no set time period for when you choose to work the diagnostic. We will distribute solutions and a grading rubric with which you can self-assess your work.
      • The BlueBook diagnostic will not be submitted nor scored. You are good to go on earning course credit given complete and satisfactory work on all assignments, section participation, and midquarter assessment!
      • Earlier we had indicated that the end-quarter assessment could be used as a makeup to replace an assignment grade; we have revised our plan to instead use the optional Assignment 7 as the makeup task.
    • The second component will be an optional end-of-quarter "check-in" meeting with your SL to wrap up the quarter and discuss future CS courses you might want to take (e.g., CS 107), and to give you an overview of what you can do with the new skills you have after completing CS106B.
      • All students are welcome and encouraged to schedule a check-in meeting. Completing the diagnostic is not required. If you did choose to do the diagnostic, you can share your results and discuss with your SL during the check-in if you like.
      • The check-in meetings do not have to take place during Week 10 or before course grades are posted. Arranging to meet after the quarter has wrapped may help both you and your SL navigate around other scheduling constraints.
      • Logistics of how to schedule a check-in meeting will be left up to individual section leaders, but you can expect them to last about 20-30 minutes.

Format

  • For the diagnostic component, the exam will be distributed via the BlueBook digital exam platform. You can type answers and solutions during into the digital exam, without the stress of needing perfectly correct syntax to conform to the demands of a compiler. Most importantly, BlueBook does not allow you to run your code. This is a purposeful restriction, and that we hope leads to less stress and not more - we are more focused on the content and quality of your thoughts and general approach rather than your ability to produce perfect, syntactically valid code in a time-limited setting.
  • For the SL meeting component, you can think of the meeting as a "quarter-long IG". The goal will be to get your section leader's perspective on your performance in the class and to get their advice on how to best prepare for wherever your future journey in computer science will take you. There is no set agenda or content that will be covered – you're free to make of the meeting whatever you want it to be!

Content

  • The coverage for CS106B final exam is comprehensive across the quarter. Exam problems most typically ask you to write code to solve a certain task. Other problems might ask you to analyze/trace a given passage of code, analyze the BigO of an operation, diagram a data structure, explain an algorithm, or provide brief answers to conceptual questions.

Motivation

  • Why might you want to participate in one or both components of the final assessment? We have a lot of reasons why we strongly encourage students to participate, even though it is now optional!
    • Many other CS courses have exams, and we want to give you practice, which might be helpful to calibrate for those future classes.
    • Your SL has lots of really helpful feedback and advice to offer, and meeting with them is a great way to get their perspective on your overall journey in CS106B this quarter.
    • You love CS 106B and can't get enough of the awesome problem solving!