Exam 2009

Well the time to complete writing the exam by hasnt come, and I am home already XD
How did you find it?

I thought it was easy...

I figure I did alright, and this is by far my "hardest to grasp" subject.

Q1 - i. Easy ii. Never know when I stuff these up, always *think* it's right
Q2 - I don't understand inductions here, so I learnt the structure and filled in the gaps for method marks.
Q3 - Pwned. The first one was from the textbook problems directly.
Q4-8 - Easy I thought if you knew your machines. The moore machine was a breeze in particular
Q9 - Pumping Lemma with L = Free marks
Q10 - Best "theory" question they could have asked.

All in all, im smiling. I don't think that 45/90 would be asking for too much here.

For Q1, ii I said:
S={a}
T={b}
s* U T* is all the words with only 1 letter

(SUT)* includes words like ab

Q2: Same as kyle. a and b are parrot marks for jam.

Q3: Easy
Q4: I never know if I get regular expressions right (the complicated, long ones), but the second RE was marks for jam

Building of all machines I found really easy.

Q9: Agreed, free marks. Even if you dont understand it, parrot learning will take 5 minutes and you will get it right
Q10: Easy. Even the actual application of it is easy. The application is more fun though, I dont like writing stuff XD

I also thought the paper was quite easy.
Sometimes I don't know if my machines are correct such as the intersection of FA1 and FA2... sometimes when I'm in a hurry I make stupid mistakes.

This might sound like a dumb question but for the alphabet {a,b}, what is the universal set and generator?
I wrote universal set {a,b} and generators a and b...
I'm asking as it was in the mock paper given but no answers for this question was given.

Universal Set = {a, b}*
Generator could have been a, or b. Even if you give 1 they should give the marks.

Kyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Universal Set = {a, b}*
> Generator could have been a, or b. Even if you
> give 1 they should give the marks.

Correct. At first I was confused because usually they gave a language first, and then you said the universal set of the language. So I wasnt sure if they wanted the universal set of {a,b} or the universal set which would be used for the language in the following question. In todays case it didnt matter, but in the past exam paper it did matter.

Anyway, the answers are a Kyle says. I find Unisa exams generally very easy, even though there is potential for them to be much much harder. Exams I wrote at another institution were infinitely harder.

Sjoe, OO analysis and design tomorrow... -_-

I too think that this was the easiest exam ever, all questions were an exact duplicate of the ones from past tutorial letters (number by number!), I should have memorised them

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I'm Year '0110' Computer Student!

To be honest, I ain't complaining bout this one I've already put my views on the matter in a different forum. At the end of the day the title doesn't make the BSc, the learning does. The fact that I can do 10 selected problems in 2 hours doesn't prove a thing.

BSc + Learning = Good
BSc + Scraping through = It won't take long before work finds out you don't know much

DISCLAIMER: The above formulae do not apply as much to those who actually work concurrently. (before I get pimp handed)

This is just out of interest, since Kyle has brought the topic up ...
I haven't worked in the Computer Science field - obviously I intend to after finishing my degree.

I am speaking in very general terms - When applying for a job, does a potential employer look at the fact that you have a BSc Computer Science degree, or do they analyse your marks, and compare them to other applicants, and make a decision based on that, whether they will hire you? In other words, will those with the higher marks get preference?

I have not had an employer look at more than the names of my qualifications thus far and asking generally what you did in them. Maybe full corporate will be different. Leila, you should REALLY try do some "proper" coding before you start looking for work. The problem is that 98% of BSc IT grads come out knowing how to make complex scientific code, but not "normal" code (if any code at all). Try get involved in an opensource project or do some freelance work, or hell, work properly as an intern or something even! It will definitely have a positive effect. If an employer looks at your marks and a BSc without a written application test of sorts, you will at least know you will get past the inexperienced "lesser" degreed professionals right away.

Aside from practicing coding, you should also take part in an active developer community forum. One where there is alot of useful information about what ever language you are wanting, as well as a place where you will be helped if you need it.

Its also a great idea to identify companies which you might want to work for, and start practicing their particular coding standards. If an opportunity arises where you can introduce yourself to them, do so. This year I entered a nokia developer competition, and submitted an app complete with UML diagrams showing proof of concept. I now receive personal emails from head of recruiting in Nokia, Finland. The guy asked me if there were any experts I would like to talk to, who he can bring with him when he visits SA (JH in December for a nokia developer seminar, which is soon after exams. Woohoo road trip! ^_^

Cool. thanks for the advice.
I think that the 'average' way of thinking would be to get a qualification in IT - and then immediately seek work...
What you both say makes a lot of sense.

SCag & Kyle : what line of work are you in?

Unless of course you want to focus more on the information systems side of computer science... Be an analyst or CIO or something.

I dont work, im a full time student. But I am looking to get in to the embedded system or mobile technologies field. Mobile phone applications in particular, I feel are very poor, bland and generic pieces of software.

You should have a gaze at www.itweb.co.za to see what kind of work is out there, and salary possibilities.
The 2009 salary survey is currently in data capture stage. But the 2008 survey results can be seen here: http://ww2.itweb.co.za/surveys/salary/2008/

I wish I can be a full time student like some of you guys. You can take it from me, to work full time and study part-time for 5 years is a torturing task.

But job opportunity wise? I will stick to software designing and analysing. I’m currently a plant operator that struggles on a daily bases with a frustrating plant operating system. And to think of it, the company that I'm working for paid a few millions for it! So my challenge one day is to design easy to use and to understand GUI's and systems with a lot of user considerations in mind.

Besides, who is working with the system on the end of the day? The poor guy working 02:00 in the morning on a night shift to earn a salary . . . like me!

Just a question - for the exam, did we have to include a table for the moore machine?
I didn't- I just drew it...
I wonder if I will get penalised for it....

I'm currently doing new developments on the desktop side of eCommerce, and was doing a bespoke business system prior to this. (More moola in the financial sector it seems)

I feel like Ivan though, I'd love to be a full time student again. I remember complaining about not having time, now when people say that to me I could rip out their throats. However I'm also not really smart doing the degree full time while working full time either.

As for the Moore machine, I don't think so. Only Kleene's theorem ever *needed* the table, as it was part of the process, as far as I know. Making combination FAs (other than FA*) in your head is just crazy talk.