Funny exam answers

Abt Uni

“Where are the solutions for the past year papers?” hear the perpetual cries of the undergrads down threads after threads in the ivle forums. We need those answers so that we can confirm that our methods of solving the problems are correct. But, no, we are not getting those. Most of the lecturers refuse to provide us with the answers we sought so fervently for. This highlighted the high demand of self-learning in the university unlike the old learning mode where we were more or less spoon-fed by our teachers, a shift that all must adapt to, sooner or later. Many were unable to hide their frustrations and worries resulting from this shift, crushed by the culture shock as we unveiled a series of surprises and uncertainty in our first few weeks. Most adapted while others were still unsure and lost.

“Do we need to memorize all the formulas? But we were given formula sheets in A levels!” Evidence that some just did not adapt well to the environment and were still stuck in the A levels days where they were most likely pampered. I just could not comprehend why must people kept comparing uni with jc, its not just one case, the above statement appeared a few times in the forums. Again, I would urge everyone to adapt to the environment rather than the other way round. Move with the cheese instead of expecting the cheese to come to you.

Another issue I want to dwell on is that thinking you knows everything when actually you don’t. This is worse than being stupid. Since at the point you have such a mindset, you stop learning. To illustrate this, I will cite an example of an acquaintance I met in school. I overheard him bragging on how useless the electrical engineering lecture (AC circuits) was and that whatever the lecturer was teaching was so easy. And he went on saying how he shouldn’t have come for the lecture so that he can play more games the previous night. Now, two things I would like to bring out here. One, if you think that the lecture is not going to be beneficial to you, you can jolly well get your ass out of the lecture room instead of disturbing others who are trying to get their most out of the lecture; no one is stopping you, the door is always there. Second, the fact is the he don’t really know his stuff. He walked out of the exam room last Friday with that “I am dead” look while shaking his head as he approaches me as though hoping I am in the same predicament as he was. Well, he did not finish the paper. And most will agree with me that the electrical engine paper was the easiest paper we had and most of us even had time to check our papers.

Dumbness. This is one word that one would not normally associate an undergrad with. Since we all studied all the way to uni, undergrad are perceived to be smart people who are able to think for themselves. However, on many occasions have I refrain myself from calling people dumb, especially in the ivle forums…

From: XXX (nickname) Date: 11/11/2005 08:20:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: what will be covered in the final exam?

will the memory allocation and the dynamic data structures be covered ?

or we just go through all the topics in the lecture notes ?

Those two topics were not covered in the lectures and of course they are not in the lecture notes. No lecturers made any announcements on what topic to study for the exams. I took it as common sense – study those covered in the lectures. But some people just don’t get it and refuse to think before they post. So I just could not resist by replying the following:

From: currytan (nickname) Date: 11/11/2005 08:33:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Re: what will be covered in the final exam?

What do u think?

If memory allocation and the dynamic data structures are going to be in the exam, why do you think the lecturers did not include them in our lectures? They are not sadistic ppl.

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After the practical exam:

From: (nickname) Date: 10/11/2005 11:44:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Pascal Story: Hope the lab marker reads this.. =p

*...

*(He went on saying how he should have go about solving the problem and that he did not have enough time to complete it)

Tell me, is this person really expecting the marker to read this and give him some sympathy marks or what?

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Less than a week before the mid term test:

From: (nickname) Date: 17/09/2005 03:28:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Is there a term/mid-semester test for CS1101C?

Just wondering if there's a term/mid-semester test for this module as I don't seem to be able to find any news(including seating arrangement/test date, etc) on it. That said, there seem to have been a mid-term test for this module in years gone by - can anyone clarify?

*After someone pointed out where to get the info:

Could you provide me with the URL where I could find details on this? Thanks for pointing out nonetheless. This is the most absurd module as far as those I take are concerned - no announcements in IVLE, no mention by tutor, etc...

Yes yes blame everyone except yourself for not taking the initiative to check up the module website, which is just a click away from the ivle site.

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From: XXX Date: 22/08/2005 12:25:00 AM

Heading: Lecture Matters

Topic: CAN'T WE HAVE A WEBCAST FOR THIS MODULE ?

AS THE TOPICS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF,

I AM REALLY DEJECTED OF NOT FINDING A MULTIMEDIA WEBCAST FOR THIS IMPORTANT MODULE.

WHAT DO YOU SAY FRIENDS, DO WE NEED IT OR NOT ?

From: (nickname) Date: 05/11/2005 07:18:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: ARE COMMENTS NECCESSARY IN FINAL XAMS?

HI ALL,

I KNO THIS IS KINDA DUMB QUESTION TO ASK , BUT I AM DESPERATE TO KNO.

IN THE MAIN EXAM , WHILE WRITIN FUNCTIONS AND COMPLETE PROGRAMS , DO WE HAVE TO

WRITE COMMENTS?

WILL COMMENTS FETCH US MARKS

Shout shout shout. Rude. Demanding. Irritating to our eyes. No net etiquette. Enough said.

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From: (nickname) Date: 05/11/2005 01:42:00 PM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Dynamic Memory Allocation

I wonder if PE include this part. I have read qn1 of PE2004(sem1), i think we have to

use dynamic memmory for this question.

Can anyone answer for me?

From: XXX(nickname) Date: 08/11/2005 10:20:00 AM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Is dynamic memory allocation in!?

Hey... i was doing the past year paper and encountered the question which happen to

have

(node *)malloc(sizeof (node));

So is this in or...?

Just because its in the past year paper means they are going to come out for ours? Plain over-reliance on past year papers.

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A few hours before the cs1101c practical exam:

From: XXX (nickname) Date: 09/11/2005 01:11:00 AM

Heading: Default Heading

Topic: Dun understand...

I still cannot understand anything about C... If i fail this module, that means i

cannot graduate... Sigh... After so many years studying, ONE programming module will

be my downfall...

HELP!

Someone thinks he can master the C language in a matter of a few hours.

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After the physics term test:

From: XXX Date: 23/09/2005 09:33:00 PM

Heading: Lecture Matters

Topic: Re: mid term test 05!!

anyone can do any qns at all? or all wrong?

I'm looking for comrades =(

Haha I think sama sama! :)

If And I say IF i do get all the questions that i attempted right .... I would still fail ... haha ... Guys , we r not alone ....(hopefully )

if i noe, i dun go.then i take the make-up test

Ya man... at most can do wat 4 or 5 ar... the rest..? BOING!!! can pass like tt meh! Super maxed out....

Some people think its cool to whine their heads off in the forum, looking for people who suffered the same predicament as they are. Something one would not expect of undergrads.

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Want more proves of dumb people in the forums? Get them all at ChuWen's!

This is what happens when...

... you do too much programming on sunfire or the SSH client:

• Try to save the document by pressing Esc :w instead of Ctlr-s;

• Think you can delete the entire line in a word document by pressing dd;

• Try to copy something by pressing yy;

• Ignore your mouse and use the arrow keys to maneuver your pointer to the desire position in the document;

• When typing the word print, you will unknowingly add a f behind because you are so used to it as you type lots of printf statement in programming;

• When you type the word if, while or for, you will tend to add an opening bracket behind it...then wonder what conditions to assign…;

• When you finish typing a document, you automatically press alt-tab and expect to see the complier so that you can compile your work…;

• And I actually type a semicolon after every statement...;

All of the above except the printf one actually happened to me last night while typing a sociology essay on my labtop, after a day of programming on sunfire.

Anyway, no comments on the practial exam, just glad that its over le, whats more important now is to concentrate on the finals!

All the best!

Bonne chance tout le monde pour les examens! Dun we all always hope that Lady Luck is with us? Especially so during this very crucial period-The Exams! There, good luck everyone!

2 more days to my CS1101C practical exams, now taking a break after 3 intensive days of programming and revising. Less than 10 days to the finals... Worried because now that the dates are so unpleasantly close and at the same time, glad and relieved because its going to be over soon... Can’t wait for the holidays to come!

Alright, thats about it, shall put down this pen for a while. Till 25th novembre..

Ahh.. 25th novembre... waiting...waiting... last paper pour moi...

Dumb signs

Huh? Left or right?

Make up your mind leh..



no no, it would be very dry when it rains...



whats up with the 1/2 mph?



Yes i am sure i need to park for a drive-thru service...



lol... so helpful huh?



Grrr...



Duh!



Help me on this one..

Lab 4 and some thoughts

As all NUS CS1101C students have experienced, Wednesday has always been a mind-numbing day as we all struggle to attend the day’s lesson with a tedious lab assignment at the back of our minds. Some, including myself, even stayed up late the previous night and started attacking the question the moment it released and often ended up like walking zombies the next day in school. This week’s question was released as usual this morning at 12am, but it did not bother me this time as I intend to tackle it only after dawn break when I got myself some well-deserved sleep. And so, when I looked at the question at around 8am, I was shocked when I saw the title, “Mini graph plotter”, and it spans over 7 pages long. My first reaction was that “Wah graph plotter? Sure or not?” and together with that came a few “what ifs”. What if I dun understand the question? What if I dunno how to do? What if I cannot finish in 1 hr 45 mins (since the practical exam will be 1hr 45 mins, so I limit myself to that timing)? What if…etc.

Then I pause and gave myself a slap. Damn! I have not even read the question and I am already panicking? After giving myself a couple more slaps, I began reading the question and realized it was not as difficult as I thought. The assignment was to write a program to plot the graph of a quadratic equation with the coefficients the user input. In fact, all the previous labs were not that tough, just that I always have the misconception that the current lab must be tougher than the previous one and that they are out there to torture us with impossible tasks. Challenging yes, but all were manageable. It was always that stupid interpretation that caused so much fear in me every time I get started on the lab assignments. So, after the initial shock, I started planning how to write the program. Yes, this is the first time I took out a paper and started planning my approach. All the previous labs, I would just glue myself to the laptop and started coding, which was highly discouraged by the lecturer and tutor. Yet, I never bothered and ended up with numerous errors and having to spend lots of valuable time debugging. This time, although, along the way I met with some problems like trying to figure how to rescale the graph and why in the hell I cannot use the rint function? (I found out that I forgot to include –lm during compiling…), the whole program took me only around 2 hrs++. Even though I exceeded the supposed timing, I did a hell lot better than my previous labs; my record was 7 hrs.

All in all, I would say that it was a good experience and I learnt a few things from this lab which I shall apply during the PE. Firstly, never never ever panic. If you panic, that’s it, your mind will break down and time will be wasted while you recover from it. Second, always plan. Never attack the keyboard immediately. It helps a lot. Third, practice incremental coding. This means do a bit of codings then compile it. In this way, you will know where the error is should there be any. This helps a lot too! There is an immerse sense of satisfaction the moment I completed this lab assignment. It was as though the whole world was applauding and cheering for me when the desired output materialized on the computer screen. Each graph turns out perfectly well with each different quadratic equation that I tried. And with each successful tries, my confidence level grew, and with it my fear diminished into nothing. The satisfaction that everything I learnt throughout the course has been well applied to solving my problem. The satisfaction that, no matter how impossible the question seems, I have conquered it.

Perhaps this is the kind of satisfaction that I am pursuing in a university education. The satisfaction that at the end of the day, even with numerous obstacles along the way, all my efforts, all the time I spent, all the stress I was facing, all the seemingly never ending tutorials and the “hard life” we are leading (as always complained by Zhi Guo…) are all worth it, that I have achieved my objective and that is to learn and attain knowledge. Like I always say, grades are secondary. Not that they are not essential, but they shouldn’t be more important than the learning process itself. Sadly, it is because of the grading system and highly exam-oriented environment that takes away all the fun in learning. Oh well, no point complaining about this, time to move with the Cheese!

Move with the cheese and enjoy it!
--- Who Moved My Cheese?

The House

Enter here if you Dare.

Thanks to Weiheng, we (me, karken, Changtai and Zhiguo(who chicken out!)) had a good scare. Please do not plug in your earphone and blast the volume like me... (cos I was listening to music before that...) Ok, enough of spoilers, check it out ba.