Test Prep
CS 690
Test 1
Home Page Study Aids
Sample Test
Study Questions
Other Good Advice
Assessment Standards
How to Prepare - papers
Review each paper
What is its main overall purpose?
How does it compare to similar
projects/systems/etc. ?
• e.g. SPIN v Exokernel
Pick out 3-5 major ideas/concepts
How to Prepare – all topics
Make an outline for each subject/topic
For each major idea, write a short
paragraph summarizing the main points
Be sure to know definitions of terms, so
you can understand the questions.
Other Tips
your homework and read my
Review
comments.
If I said your answers were vague, focus on
being more specific.
If I said “correct, but not necessary”, focus on
answering the question that was asked, do
not feel like you must give lots of background.
Read the question carefully and do what it
says!!
Exam Format
Multiple choice, matching or other
objective question
Short answer
Comparisons
“What’s the significance of this concept”
State the main concept/purpose/reason
Essay or paragraphs
What Is a Good Answer?
The facts are right.
It is not just something you have memorized and
regurgitated
It answers the question I asked, not the question
you thought I would ask.
It addresses the main points and does not focus
on side issues.
It is not vacuous
It is organized and coherent: not just a collection
of key words strung together
For Example
Question: “Compare an apple and an orange.”
Bad Answer: “An apple is red and crunchy while
an orange is juicy, and a member of the citrus
genus.”
Better: “Apples and oranges are both fruits and
have a round shape. Apples are from the genus
malus and oranges from the citrus genus.
Apples are usually red, oranges are orange.”
In other words, compare by looking at the same
attributes in both and deciding how they are the
same or different.
Compare Example
Ifyou just describe and evaluate each
separately, you will not get full credit.
Use phrases like “A does it this way; on
the other hand, B does it that way”, or “A
and B both do this”.
For Example
Question: Give a significant difference betw. the
FCFS scheduling algorithm and RR scheduling.
Good Answer: “FCFS allows processes to run
until they block or terminate. RR allows
processes to run until they exceed a pre-
determined time-slice.” or “FCFS allows the
process to decide how long it runs but RR has
an upper limit to how long a process can run
before another process is allowed to execute.”
Not as good, but not terrible: “RR has more
context switches than FCFS due to time slicing”.
Bad : “RR uses time-slices, FCFS doesn’t”
Notice: none of them define RR or FCFS
Significant Difference Example
Significant differences usually should be a
difference in method or approach, not an
effect of that method. So rather than say
“A is more efficient than B” give the
difference in method or structure that
causes A to be more efficient.
For Example
Question: “What is virtual memory?”
Vacuous Answer: “Virtual memory is a very
important memory management technique.
Today, almost all computers employ some form
of virtual memory. Virtual memory is
implemented by the memory management
portion of the operating system. It requires
special computer hardware and software.
Computers without virtual memory are not as
efficient or user-friendly as computers with
virtual memory…blah, blah, blah.”