Exam Remarks

That was a fair exam......

I would also say that was quite a fair paper. Except for Question 5, the FA's for which were bit of a bitch to do, I left that one till last so hopefully didn't stuff it up too much. Glad to see it was along the same lines as last year's paper that was sent to us. The last question was also quite a nice one and fairly easy to get the marks for. Anybody know if the marker's give part marks for attempt at the questions?

PS I could've shot the guy sitting next to me, was sighing at the top of his breath and shuffling his papers throughout the exam, what a distraction!!! Obviously he didn't find the paper as fair as others

I thought it was fair too. It wasn't easy though. I thought Q7 and the last part of Q3 was quite tough. All in all a good paper though.

That was my last exam for the year! Whoooohoooo!

Good luck to everyone. Hope you get the result you're looking for.

Cheers

Mark

I also think the exam was fair BUT i guess that i'll have to wait and see when the results pops up ... +- 12 Dec i guess ?!

Fair exam. That FA conversion to NFA was a bit difficult.
Guess we'll have to wait and see...

Also my last one for this year.

It was very fair. Quite enjoyable as well, thought it was quite close to our assignment and preps inside the study unit.

Notice on myUnisa:
Preliminary examination results release date: 12 December 2006 08:00 SA time.

I remember from previous year's, if you register to receive it by email, you get it during the weekend before......

Although the exam was fair, I just wonder why they don't allow more time, say 3hrs. I mean, when I wrote I was writing as fast as I could and I just finished on time. There was not time to check answers for mistakes, or to take a breather between the questions or really think abt an answer before you put it down....Or even re-read the question to make sure you understand it.

I dunno if it's just me, but I literally have to read the questions 5 times over before I can understand what is asked. And this was the case with the study guide and the book too. Because it's such an complex & abstract concept, it's easy to misunderstand the question...

I just wonder if it would be such a train-smash to allocate more time for the exam...especially to accommodate people whose first language is not English or Afrikaans. I mean at the end of the day, it's not a speed test...does it really make a difference whether it takes me 10 minutes to answer a question or if it takes me 15 minutes??

I have to agree with you. What difference is it going to make if it's a 3 hour exam. I don't see the logic behind it.
I also had to rush thru, and might have missed something (who knows).

I would like to know the logic behind it.

I also think the exam was fair but have to agree with sane! that the time was a bit tight (I had to rush everything). Don't know how they are planning to mark it but hopefully they will mark it like the assignments and give you full marks for trying.

RiaanR Wrote:
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> Fair exam. That FA conversion to NFA was a bit
> difficult.
> Guess we'll have to wait and see...
>
> Also my last one for this year.

I actually thought that the conversion was easy but your comment is making me a bit nervous.

All I did was to remove the the second state and replaced it with aa and added a recursive transition for ab to the first one. Might not be enough though, considering that it was 5 points.

i was also thinking that they could increase the time to write. i wrote fast because i had read in last year's forum someone's comment that they ran out of time. i think had i not read that i wouldn't have finished...

that's what i did as well..
i dont get the points though, the regular expression question (the language of bbb with no aaa) was such a short answer, and that for 5 points. I feel as if I missed something. My counterexample was the word abbb that could not be generated.

jeanbodemer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I actually thought that the conversion was easy
> but your comment is making me a bit nervous.
>
> All I did was to remove the the second state and
> replaced it with aa and added a recursive
> transition for ab to the first one. Might not be
> enough though, considering that it was 5 points.

I thought that NFA's where only allowed 1 letter from the alphabet per edge?!?
But it may or may not contain edges for every letter. (FA must contain edge for every letter in the alphabet)

I thought the regular expression did create words with bbb in them, because there where square brackets around the outer parts. [] (not like the one I saw somewhere in the material)

My answer for the Question to create a Regular expression for words with only aa once and not bb was: (b + ab*)aa(ba* + b)

it did create words with bbb, but the beginning didnt allow for a single a to be generated (i think it was b*, abb*, aabb*)bbb(more stuff) so the word abbb couldnt be generated by the provided reg exp. i didnt give a rectified expression!! KNEW i wrote too little to justify 5 marks...

RiaanR Wrote:
>
> I thought that NFA's where only allowed 1 letter
> from the alphabet per edge?!?
> But it may or may not contain edges for every
> letter. (FA must contain edge for every letter in
> the alphabet)
>
Oops, got confused with TG and NFA's. 5 points down the drain.


> My answer for the Question to create a Regular
> expression for words with only aa once and not bb
> was: (b + ab*)aa(ba* + b)
>

I think you also have to cater for null (or you can't have aa, aab etc.), this was my answer.
(/\ + b + ab*)aa(ba* + b + /\)

LOL, there goes 5 marks. (Oh well)

RiaanR Wrote:
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> LOL, there goes 5 marks. (Oh well)


I'm sure you will get some points, not like my NFA that is actually a TG.

I nearly forgot to draw the FA of r*, just did the table and only realised I had to draw it 5 minutes before the end.

oops sorry, mine was actually:
(b + (ab)*)aa((ba)* + b), where the (ab)* and the (ba)* includes /\.
Now that I think of it...

hahahaha, 5 marks, in the bag.

...well at least you remembered to draw the FA.

Do we get half marks? If the FA is only half-way right do we get 2 or 3 marks, or is it 5 or nothing?

I forgot to put in the brackets, my solution was actually
(/\ + b + (ab)*)aa((ba)* + b + /\)

You are right, you don't need the null as the ()* already caters for it. Didn't think of that.