Exam Calculations

Hey All,

So who all is prepping for this one? I've got 2 others in the two days before this exam, so I'm now trying to prep for 3 exams in 3 days, with this being the 3rd paper. Seems like time is slipping by so quickly, and not enough time in a day to work and get studying in...

Anwyay, I seem to have noticed that the May/June exam contains a number of "calculation" type of questions, and I'm wondering if it can be safe to assume that our paper would be similar? Obviously, there are theorectical based questions, which requires going through a large amount of text to obtain a potential quarter of the paper (if similar), but my primary concern is with the apparent calculation questions, since they appeared to make up the majority of the previous exam paper.

So under the assumption that it is the same type of structure, what else would one be missing from this list in terms of "calculation" type questions:
- scheduling algorithms - ie: drawing the gantt charts and the associated calculations on waiting time, turnaround time, etc
- scheduling priorities - I'm not sure if this one counts as a calculation type question, but its the type of question similar to Exercise 8.3 at the bottom of Tut 101.
- bankers algorithm - ie: determining if a safe state exists and whether a resource allocation can be granted to a process
- page referencing -ie: calculating the page fault rate, etc
- Disk I/O operations - ie: question 4 of Assignment 2 (from Semester 2).

Anything else that one should perhaps consider (apart from all the theory behind all of this)?

I think the exam tut said something about 57% would be applied with 7% applied/theory (those were probably all the "write down the formula" type questions in the May/June exam) for a total of 64%.

Hi Wishblade, I'm going to use the same strategy - i.e. try and get as close to full marks for the 'sums' as possible and hope like hell that it makes up for any blanks on the theory part. My list is the same as yours at the moment, but if I come across anything else, I'll come add it here.

This is not my typical modus operandi and I'm really panicking about this module. But frankly, the theory just seems like too vast an amount of complicated material to master in one semester if you also have a life (full-time job, family and kids, other responsibilities..). Admittedly, this last statement sounds pretty lame to me as I usually (or often enough) enjoy a challenge..

All the best for your (frantic) preparation. Wishing you luck!

lol, i thought i was the only one with that stratergy....

The theory is just way to much volume, to read... reread... think about .. and then read again ... iv only just completed read the chapters on friday :-(

going with the sums, but judging from the last paper even the pratical calculations are pretty wide spread ....

Hi guys,

I found this, might be of some use as additional notes (in my case, only notes): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2010/01/04/unisa-summary-of-2010-posts.aspx

I really hope it helps somebody - I mostly hope it helps me

@wishblade Good luck! I thought I had it bad with a total of 3 days between my subjects.

I'm also banking on the "practical" part of this subject.

The "Practical" part seems more practical for a pass mark!

Wow, looks like there's a number of us who are going this route...

I've had about enough theory from the two papers from today and yesterday, so I'm really hoping this approach to calculation type questions works in our favour... But, all the best for tomorrow anyway! If I have a post up in this forum by 9.30am tomorrow morning, the its obvious that it didn't go the way I was expecting... But that's negative thoughts... this will go right... positive thinking and all that...

Marius Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi guys,
>
> I found this, might be of some use as additional
> notes (in my case, only notes):
> [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/ar
> chive/2010/01/04/unisa-summary-of-2010-posts.aspx]
> [url]http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive[/url]
> /2010/01/04/unisa-summary-of-2010-posts.aspx[/url]
>
>
> I really hope it helps somebody - I mostly hope it
> helps me
>
> @wishblade Good luck! I thought I had it bad with
> a total of 3 days between my subjects.

Well, thats the way it goes - thought I would get all my last papers done in this semester, and then didn't bother to look at the time schedule for the exams. A bit of forward planning may have helped me a bit, but its drastically too late for that now. All I'm wanting is a pass for this module, so if I can wing that, then I'm a happy chappy...

And the link is helpful, actually summarized things nicely. If the worst happens tomorrow and I end up having to take this module again next year, then I'm definitely using those notes instead of making my own. Whats happening to my current notes???... well, lets just say they are not a very well utilized resource, and they got context switched out to the dustbin... Too much to go through, and depressing me when I looked at the stack of it sitting on my desk, so I made it go away... I feel better now, although I might not feel so good tomorrow. Damn forward planning again...

Now where did that positive thinking lot go to... Hmmm.... have to go find its scrawny ass again...

Well... look on the bright side ... either u do or you dont ...
either you lernt something

I only figured out there was a TUT letter 2 today :-(

So yeah ... im gonna stick with the calcs as well..

Good luck !

Tutorial letter 2?

Ag flip!