The exam is open-book and consists of 20 short answer questions. All
20 questions should be answered.
You will not be asked to recite facts,
but instead you will be tested with respect to your understanding of the topics
Preparing for an open-book exam
- Compile a study plan which shows the hours/days you
want to spend preparing for each exam.
- Determine which books, lecture notes, handwritten notes you
want to take with you to the exam.
- Write a table of contents for any notes that don't have an index.
- Have a look through the lecture notes. Keep in mind that you will not
be asked factual questions in the exam. Instead, you will be presented with
problems or tasks that require a solution.
- Reflect on the topics presented in the lecture notes: what are
tasks and challenges for each topic?
- Write an exam question for each week of the lecture notes.
- Unfortunately, there are no past papers because this is the
first time the module is running. The exam will consist of short answer
questions, some of which relating to real user questions.
An example of the style (but not content) of short answer question
are the first 10 questions in this exam.
The style (not content) of the "real user questions" can be found in
these examples.
- With respect to the content of the exam: there will be one or two
questions relating to each week's topic. Examples of possible questions are:
whether a code sample is well-formed or valid; whether a code sample is secure;
writing or reading a short regular expression; writing some DOM/SAX statements.
Some of these questions will be similar to the
in-class exercises that were discussed during the lectures. (You are not expected
to memorize syntax or specific programming language details. If you are asked
to write code, it will be in the same style as the in-class exercises.)
- If you have a question while preparing for the exam, send an
email to u.priss. But, please, be specific with your questions (e.g. "on the 5th
slide in week 7, why is ...").
- If you have, in the past, experienced any problems with exams (not
enough time to finish, problems concentrating, panic attack), you should
address these before you go to the exam. There are exercises you can do
to overcome these problems (time management, mental preparation for
exam situations). Have a look at
Napier's Study Skills
website or do a search on the web for '"exam preparation" "study skills"'.
In severe cases, contact the Academic Support Adviser for advice.
What you can take with you to the exam
The exam is an open-book exam. You may use any book and any
handwritten notes.
You should take the following with you:
- the printouts that were handed out during class,
- any handwritten notes that you compiled during the semester,
- one or two books on XML, etc, especially a book with a good
index so that you can find things quickly. (On the other hand, if you didn't
use a book for the coursework, there is probably no point in buying one now.)
You may NOT use electronic devices (e.g. laptops, calculators,
mobile phones etc). If you require electronic devices because of
a disability or other reasons, you need to obtain advance permission.
During the exam
- Don't leave any answers blank! Even if you don't know
the answer, make a guess, write something which relates to the question.
You might still get some partial points for it.
- Short answer questions means: keep your answers short. Focus
on the main points.
- Be confident! You spent a lot of time with Advanced Web Technologies
during the coursework. You will have learned a lot during this
class. Many exam questions just require a bit of common sense in addition
to some basic knowledge that you will have acquired this semester.