The Exam Plan

What Plan?

The general format of the yet to be written exam will be discussed today.

More Information

The following lectures are not explicitly examined:
Lecture 1: Computer Networks Overview
Lecture 2: A Network Architecture Example
Lecture 7: The Programming Interface (sockets, etc)

The structure of the exam will be similar to previously set exams. Questions may not all carry the same marks. The marks for each question have not been set at this stage. Note, however, that the exam is still worth 60% of the final assessment for the subject.

Note, also, that each question may have many parts, and in some cases, sub parts. It is in your interest to try and keep all the answers to each question together in your answer booklet.

Exam Hints

There will be three kinds of questions on the exam:

  1. Questions taken from last year's exam, perhaps with some slight modifications to remove ambiguity or to change the emphasis.
  2. Questions derived from the tutorials, often with the wording changed slightly to ensure a single correct answer. Questions in this category have not appeared on exams before.
  3. Brand new questions, taken from the lecture notes, and requiring deeper understanding and appreciation of the discipline to answer fully. These may be developed from tute questions, or older exam papers, but worded differently.

If You Enjoyed It

Finally, the advertising.

If you enjoyed this subject, you should investigate: (delivered by Phil Scott):

BITDCO: Data Communications
Data Communications covers the technical aspects of Computer Networks in much more detail. It actually overlaps slightly with BITCNE: Computer Networks, because of
  1. The nature of the subject area. The Network (IP) and Transport (TCP/UDP) layers are covered in both, but in more detail in BITDCO.
  2. A large proportion of students take only one of BITCNE and BITDCO, and it's important that they don't miss these important topics.
BITDCO: Data Communications is only offered in second semester.

Note that if you're completing your degree at this time, you could consider enrolling in Honours, and taking Current Communications Standards, also offered in second semester this year.

Finally, if you're sure you've failed (:-( you can probably re-enrol in BITCNE in first semester next year, when it's taught by Phil Scott.

This lecture is NOT available in PostScript format. There is no tutorial for this lecture.
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Noel McEwam