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Computer Science 12:


Study guides for quizzes and the final exam




Study guide for Quiz 1, to be given September 16, 2011

Beginning on Friday, September 16, we will have brief (10 to 20 minute) quizzes at the beginning of each lab session. (Please arrive on time or early.) The quizzes will be on paper.

The September 16 quiz will be an on-paper quiz having two parts:

  1. Excel: Given a picture of a portion of an Excel spreadsheet, you will be expected to write appropriate formulas for the specified cells. The formulas will involve some of the functions that have been covered in lab and/or in tutorial material. These may include SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, and the various functions involving dates. They may also include the basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Also you will need to know the difference between absolute and relative addressing of cells (e.g. $A$2 vs. A2).

    2. To prepare for the quiz, you will need practice using all the above-named functions. To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the Excel tutorials for all four weeks up to now.

  2. HTML: You will be expected to write out the HTML for a trivially short page which will be described on the quiz. You will be expected to know all the HTML we have covered in class so far. You will be expected to know how to create HTML links using the  a  tag with the  href  attribute, and you will be expected to know how to use the  body ,  p  (paragraph),  head ,  title , and  html  tags. (See the HTML tutorials.)


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Study guide for Quiz 2, to be given September 23, 2011

The September 23 quiz will be an on-paper quiz having two parts:

  1. Excel: Given a picture of a portion of an Excel spreadsheet, you will be expected to write appropriate formulas for the specified cells. The formulas will involve some of the functions that have been covered in lab and/or in tutorial material. These may include SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, and especially the IF function. They may also include the basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus the relational operators, (such as  < ,  > ,  <= , and  >= ),  which we've often seen used within logical expressions. Also you will need to know the difference between absolute and relative addressing of cells (e.g. $A$2 vs. A2), and you will need to the date formulas we covered in class (the DATE, TODAY, and DAYS360 functions, and the use of simple subtraction to compute the number of days between two dates).

    2. To prepare for the quiz, you will need practice using all the above-named functions. To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the Excel tutorials for all four weeks up to now. Make sure, especially, that you get practice with IF functions, including nested IF functions.

  2. HTML: As on the previous quiz, you will be expected to write out the HTML for a trivially short page which will be dscribed on the quiz. You will be expected to know all the HTML we have covered in class so far. You will be expected to know how to create HTML links using the  a  tag with the  href  attribute, and you will be expected to know how to use the  body ,  p  (paragraph),  head ,  title , and  html  tags. (See the HTML tutorials.)


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Study guide for Quiz 3, to be given October 4, 2011

On Tuesday, October 4, we will have our usual brief (10 to 20 minute) quiz at the beginning of class. (Please arrive on time or early.) The March 18 quiz will be an on-paper quiz having two parts:

  1. Excel: Similar to last week's Excel quiz problem, but probably more challenging.

    2. To prepare for the quiz, you will need practice using all the functions we've covered so far (listed in the previous study guide), plus AND and OR. To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the Excel tutorials for all four weeks up to now. Make sure, especially, that you get practice with IF, AND, and OR functions, including nested IF functions.

  2. Microsoft Word: One or two brief fill-in-the-blanks or multiple-choice questions on the use of heading styles and the generation of a table of contents.


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Study guide for Quiz 4, to be given October 14, 2011

On Friday, October 14, we will have our usual brief (10 to 20 minute) quiz at the beginning of class. (Please arrive on time or early.) The October 14 quiz will be an on-paper quiz having two parts:

  1. Excel: mostly about Excel formulas involving the functions that have been covered in lab and/or in tutorial material. These include SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, IF, AND, OR, COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF, and also the basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus the date functions. Given an on-paper picture of an Excel spreadsheet, you will be expected to be able to write appropriate formulas for specified cells.

    2. There will also be some multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blanks questions. Likely topics covered include the Excel date functions and the difference between absolute and relative cell references.

    To prepare for the quiz, the main thing you will need is practice using all the above-named Excel functions. To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the tutorials. Make sure, especially, that you are comfortable with COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF, and also with nested IF functions and logical expressions involving AND and OR.

  2. Microsoft Word: A few brief fill-in-the-blanks or multiple-choice questions on the use of Microsoft Word's automatic generation of bibliographies, citations, and footnotes.


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Study guide for Quiz 5, to be given October 21, 2011

The October 21 quiz will be an on-paper quiz, mostly about Excel formulas involving the functions that were covered in lab this week, i.e. the SMALL, LARGE, PMT, PV, and FV functions. It may also involve other functions we've covered in the past, including the SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, IF, AND, OR, COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF, and also the basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus the date functions. Given an on-paper picture of an Excel spreadsheet, you will be expected to be able to write appropriate formulas for specified cells.

There will be some fill-in-the-blanks questions, and possibly some multiple-choice questions, on database terminology. Any of the basic database concepts covered in class will be fair game. Know the meaning of the following terms, in the context of databases: "table," "record" (a.k.a. "tuple"), "field" (a.k.a. "attribute"), "key," "foreign key," "referential integrity," "query," "form," and "report."

To prepare for the quiz, the main thing you will need is practice using all the above-named Excel functions. To that end, it is recommended that you not only do the homework but also play with examples in the tutorials. Make sure, especially, that you are comfortable with COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF, and also with nested IF functions and logical expressions involving AND and OR.

You should also study your class notes and the tutorials on the database concepts we are introducing this week.


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Study guide for Quiz 6, to be given October 28, 2011

The October 28 quiz will be an on-paper quiz.

Thre will be an Excel spreadsheet problem, and possibly also some multiple-choice and/or fill in the blanks questions regarding Excel as well. You will be responsible for all concepts learned thus far.

There will also be some questions about Goal Seek and how it could be used with various Excel functions we've covered so far. You might first be given a picture of a spreadsheet and asked to write a formula appropriate to some problem, along with fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple-choice questions about how Goal Seek could then be used with that formula. To be prepared for these questions, you must practice using Goal Seek with a variety of Excel functions.

As on the previous quiz, there will be some fill-in-the-blanks questions, and possibly some multiple-choice questions, on database terminology. Any of the basic database concepts covered in class will be fair game. Know the meaning of the following terms, in the context of databases: "table," "record" (a.k.a. "tuple"), "field" (a.k.a. "attribute"), "key," "foreign key," "referential integrity," "query," "form," and "report."

There will be some fill-in-the-blanks or multiple choice questions about the Windows command prompt. Be familiar with the use of the dir and cd commands to navigate a hierarchy of directories/folders, and be familiar with the use of drive letters such as C:.


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Study guide for Quiz 7, to be given November 4, 2011

The November 4 quiz will be an on-paper quiz.

There will probably be some questions about Excel's VLookup function. The questions may include fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions and/or a problem in which you are given a picture of a spreadsheet and asked to write an appropriate formula to go into some specified cell.

There will probably be a spreadsheet problem involving one or more of the previously-covered Excel functions, including LARGE, PMT, FV, PV, SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, the date functions (DATE, TODAY, DAYS360, and simple difference in days), and especially IF, AND, OR, COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF.

There will probably be some fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions about WinSCP and Unix. Make sure you know how to use the Unix commands pwd, ls (including ls -l and ls -a) , cd, mkdir, and cp. (Note that the cd and mkdir commands are pretty much the same in Unix and the Windows Command Prompt, and note that ls in Unix is roughly equivalent to dir in the Windows Command Prompt.) Make sure you know what a "directory" is, and what a "pathname" is.

There will probably be some fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions about Wordpress blogs. Be familiar with the use of themes, and be familiar with the use of categories, tags, and links lists.


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Study guide for Quiz 8, to be given November 18, 2011

The November 11 quiz will be an on-paper quiz.

There will probably be a spreadsheet problem involving one or more of the previously-covered Excel functions, including VLOOKUP, LARGE, SMALL, PMT, FV, PV, SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, the date functions (DATE, TODAY, DAYS360, and simple difference in days), and especially IF, AND, OR, COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF. There may also be a problem involving the Goal Seek tool. There may also be various other fill-in-the-blanks questions about Excel features we have studied so far.

There will probably be some fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions about WinSCP and Unix. Make sure you understand the material covered in class about permissions and the chmod command. Also there will be more questions about the same Unix commands mentioned in last week's quiz study guide: pwd, ls (including ls -l and ls -a) , cd, mkdir, and cp. Be familiar with the equivalent or near-equivalent command in the Windows Command Prompt. Make sure you know what a "directory" is, and what a "pathname" is.

There will probably be some fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions about Wordpress blogs. Be familiar with the use of themes, and be familiar with the use of categories, tags, and links lists.

There will probably be some fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions about databases and Microsoft Access.


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Study guide for Quiz 9, to be given December 2, 2011

The December 2 quiz will be an on-paper quiz.

There will be an Excel spreadsheet problem, which may involve any of the topics covered so far. Be especially prepared for problems involving VLookup, the logical functions (IF, AND, OR, nested IF), and functions using criteria (CountIF, SumIF, and AverageIF). The questions may include fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple choice questions and/or a problem in which you are given a picture of a spreadsheet and asked to write an appropriate formula to go into some specified cell.

There will be some fill-in-the-blanks questions on Linux/Unix file permissions. You will expected to know the meaning of the symbols  d , r , w , x , and  -  in the output when you type  ls -l  or  ls -la  on a Unix/Linux system. You will also be expected to know how to use the  chmod  command.


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Study guide for Quiz 10, to be given December 9, 2011

The December 9 quiz will be an on-paper quiz.

The quiz will cover all topics covered so far, plus mail merge. Regarding mail merge, there will probably be a few fill-in-the-blanks and/or multiple-choice questions on matters you should be familiar with if you've used mail merge a few times.

The majority of the quiz will be devoted to other topics mentioned in previous study guides.


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Study guide for final exam, to be given December 16, 2011

The final exam will be given on Friday, November 16, at our usual class time, in B-131.

The final exam will be similar to the quizzes, only longer. It will cover all the material covered on all the quizzes, plus various matters covered in previous quiz study guides though not on the actual quizzes themselves.

To prepare, review all your past quizzes and review everything else you were asked to review in all the quiz study guides.


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D. Nixon: CS 12 > Quizzes & Exam