Topic outline

  • Partial tasks and the final grade

    The course has two mandatory parts: the course Exercises and the final Exam. Both parts are graded on a scale of 0 to 5. If either part gets a grade of 0, the overall grade from the course is 0 (failed). Otherwise, the final grade will be the average of the 2 grades (from the Exam and the Exercises). The average is rounded up.

    Exercise grading

    The grade boundaries for the Exercises are as follows:

    Exercise  
    Grade
    Minimum  
    points
    Maximum  
    points
    Additional Notes
    0 0 2829 Results in failing the course
    1 2830 3940 Minimum points required from Rounds 1 to 8
    2 3941 4565 Minimum points required from Rounds 1 to 8
    3 4566 5191 Minimum points required from all Rounds
    4 5192 5816 Minimum points required from all Rounds
    5 5817  . . . Minimum points required from all Rounds

    You must get the minimum number of points for Rounds 1 to 8 to pass the course. To get an Exercise grade of 3 or higher, you must also get the minimum number of points for Round 9. The points gained from substitutive exercises do not count towards the point total; instead, passing the substitutive exercise nets you the minimum passing score required for the Round that is being substituted. See Exercises for more information about the minimum points for each Round and the substitutive exercises.
    • Exam and exam requirements

      The exam will be organized as an in-person computer EXAM at the Otaniemi campus between December 8th and 21st, 2021. Make sure that you have also enrolled in the exam in Sisu (do this at least one week before the exam)! This is necessary so that course grade registration succeeds. After enrolment, you can reserve a 175 minute time slot for participating in the exam in the EXAM studio class. In the exam, the questions are drawn from a large amount of questions, so that each student will have a different set of questions. The EXAM platform instructions and schedules are given on the section Exam in the EXAM studio.


      Note: Course exercises completed in autumn 2019 with a passing grade are still valid in the exam that is organized in October 2020 and the exercises from summer 2020 are still valid in the exam organized in May 2020. Course exercises that are older than this are not valid anymore.

      The exam tasks are mostly programming exercises in which you have to either code programs or explain the functionality or print results of given programs or fix the bugs from given short programs. If the exam has essay-type questions or other explanation tasks that are not directly related to a program code (e.g. explaining words or concepts), their portion of the total exam grade is at most 20 %. A lot of exams do not have these kinds of essay or explanation tasks at all.

      A test run of a digital exam may be done. This exam has different questions than the main exam. 

      All topics from the course materials are included in the exam requirements, except for the following:

      • Formatting print outputs using string formatting (the output either does not need to be formatted or the formatting commands are given)
      • Tuples
      • Dictionaries
      • The following list functions and methods don't need to be remembered (if they are needed, they are given in the assignments): index, insert, remove, sort, sorted and reverse. Python list functions and methods that are not included in the course materials are not required in the exam.
      • The following string functions and methods don't need to be remembered (if they are needed, they are given in the assignment): index, lower and upper. Python string functions and methods that are not included in the course materials are not required in the exam. Note! You still need to know how to create or handle strings.

      The exam has one task on object-oriented programming. This task is equal in difficulty to Exercises 2 and 3 from Round 9 combined together. Roughly speaking, the task is to write a simple class and a main program that creates objects of said class and calls its methods for the objects. The points from this task are 25 % of the total exam points. In practice, this means that the exam can be passed if no points are scored from the object-oriented programming task, but it is difficult to get a grade of 3 or above. Here, object-oriented programming means the topics introduced in Round 9 of the course material. In addition to actual orient-objected programming, the exam may have tasks that require the usage of, for example, methods to handle lists, strings, or files.

      Tasks that test one's understanding of the code can for example be:
      • What does the program given in the assignment print out?
      • In a given program, what value does a variable/variables need to have so that the program prints out a specific line?
      • What does a given program or a function do?
      • What mistakes does a given program have?
      Tasks that require writing code can for example be:
      • Write a program that does a required task.
      • Write a function that gets its parameters as specified in the assignment and returns a required value.
      • There is a function X, the parameters and return value of which are given in the assignment (the code for the function itself may not be given). Write a program that does a required task using function X.
      Completing these tasks may for example require the following:
      • If-statement
      • Repeat commands (loops)
      • Handling lists or strings
      • Writing a function (includes using parameters and return values)
      • Writing into or reading from a file
      • Handling exceptions with the try-except structure
      Additionally, the exam always has one object-oriented programming task, which is elaborated on above.

      As indentation is important in Python code, the code written in the exam tasks is to be indented clearly and accurately. If there are errors or confusion regarding the indentations, points are reduced from the solution. Use indentation of two spaces!

      You can practice the exam using the practice exam of Basics in Programming Y1 that can be found from the A+ front page.

      Special arrangements in the exam

      If you need special arrangements in the exam, for example because of dyslexia or a disability, you need a certificate outlining the special arrangements you should get (e.g. more time to complete the exams) from your school's student services. Take the certificates and reports you have received previously (e.g. certificates from your matriculation examination) with you when you go to the student services. Take into account that processing the case in student services can take some time, so get it done early. You can use the certificate you get from student services in all courses in Aalto.

      If you have the certificate about special arrangements in exams from the student services, notify the lecturer by email at least two weeks before the exam (but preferably even earlier so that necessary arrangements can be made). 

      If you are in need of special arrangements because of other reasons, you can always contact the lecturer about it by email. Please do so as soon as possible.