Spring 2025 — Exam 2 guide

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Where and When

• Test date: Monday 28-April-2025
• Test time: class time
• Test location: regular classroom
• The exam is a paper-based exam. It will be administered in a classroom, in-person. No online version. No take-home version.

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Conflicts

• All conflicts should have been reported and an alternative exam date must be arranged in advanced.

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Make-up exam

Please refer to the Make-up exam section on the course Policies page.

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DAISS accommodation

If you need accommodation, please submit proper documents to DAISS. We unfortunately cannot provide accommodation in class or during office hours. Please schedule to take the exam at DAISS.

Please visit Disability Resource Center for more information.

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What to bring

• Pens, pencils, erasers, writing utensils
• One cheat sheet (see detail in test specific) -- this is optional
• No calculators, scratch paper, backpacks, books, laptops, or anything else should be brought. These items will be left in the back/front of the room if you bring them.

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Test specific

• Exam2 is closed book / notes / laptops / web / electronic devices / neighbors; paper-based, administered in class, no collaboration. No online version. No take-home version.
• The only exception is a single sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper with handwritten by the person taking the exam (may write on both sides of the sheet).
  • A cheat sheet must be in your handwriting.
  • Only handwriting on a single sheet of paper is allowed.
  • **NO** writing on electronic device(s) and print.
  • We must take away any sheet that violates this rule and/or assign a zero grade on the exam.
• Refer to the Coverage section below for the exam coverage.
• Only what have been introduced or discussed in Spring 2025 CSI 508 will be covered. We will not ask you anything that has not been covered in this course this semester.
• The format of the exam will be similar to POTDs, activities, and homework assignments.
• You may expect different kinds of questions:
  • Short answer
  • Multiple choices (less likely but possible)
  • Matching (less likely but possible)
  • True/false (less likely but possible)
  • Problem solving
  • Discussion
  • Design and diagram drawing
  • (SQL) Code reading, writing, and fixing
  • Database-related coding questions that relate to your project
• Very minor syntax errors are acceptable. Major syntax errors result in points deduction.

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Major things you can expect

• Some questions related to material discussed in class
• Some questions related to POTDs, activities, examples, homework assignments
• Some questions related to project

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Coverage

• SQL: Subqueries and subqueries in WHERE and quantifiers (lecture 13)
  • Note: to solve problems using subqueries, you need concepts of SQL basics, aggregates, and joins. That is, SQL discussions from lectures 9-12 are implicitly embedded in subqueries.
• SQL (lecture 15) excluding Assertion
  • Constraints and triggers – focus on general concepts, no coding
  • Stored procedures – focus on general concepts, no coding
• General concepts of database interfacing (lectures 16-18)
  • You are expected to understand the general concepts, how database programming works, and how software application interacts with a database to provide services.
  • No specific coding. No programming language is required. We will not ask you to write a software.
• Database security, SQL injection and prevention methods (lecture 19)
• Relational Algebra, mapping between SQL and RA (lecture 20)
• Query cost estimation (lecture 21)
• Indexing (lectures 22-23)
• Transactions and concurrency control (lecture 24)
• Distributed database (lectures 25) [23-Apr, per the class decision, this topic is excluded from the exam]
• NoSQL database (lecture 25) [23-Apr, per the class decision, this topic is excluded from the exam]
• Your project
  • Applying what we discussed (all the above) to your project

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Study guide

• Review the lectures / materials / slides / online resources
• Redo POTDs, activities, examples
• Review or redo homework assignments
• Review your project
• Practice writing SQL (refer to the meetings on "Advanced SQL") and RA
  • You are expected to remember the fundamental and syntax covered in class and be able to write SQL and RA with correct syntax.
  • A few very minor syntax errors is OK. But if you are really off we will take off points.
• Get a good night's sleep

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Grades

Please refer to the Assessment section of the course syllabus.

By default, grades will not be rounded or curved in this course, and there is no grade bump.

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A final note

Here is A Time-effective Strategy for Taking Exams by Professor Jeff Offutt.

Good luck !

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Copyright © 2025 Upsorn Praphamontripong
Released under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Last updated 2025-01-16 18:52