The scope of Midterm 1 is Sipser Chapters 0, 1, and 2 (except not the part on Ambiguity (the subsection on that on pp. 107-108 in SIP) and not the part on Chomsky Normal Form and not Chapter 2.4), unioned with everything on the posted course slides through and including those whose footer says "Chapter 2, Part 4" (note: the "Chapter 2, Part 4" slides are generally focused on Chapter 2.3 plus some material on closure properties), unioned with everything in the reading (even parts you that were to review or skim), unioned with everything covered in class (including the things covered verbally and the things that were projected on a screen, e.g., as pdf or via the document camera) before the day of Midterm 1 (except not any parts, within the Feb. 20/22/27 lectures, devoted to starting Chapter 3---and it is likely that much or all of those lectures will be on Chapter 3), unioned with everything covered at workshops or ROHs, unioned with everything touched on in the "Exercises/Problems" section of our home page, unioned with our BB announcements/home page and any readings assigned, unioned with any material posted in the BB folders of doc cam pages and WS slides. Of course, questions may well be asked that require you to have new thoughts in or related to those general domains, or to make new connections or to synthesize things or have new insights; the exam is not limited in scope to mechanical playback of things you have already seen. The one exception to the above scope definition is that---although you are expected to know what a PDA is and to know that (and know the two proofs that show that) the class of languages accepted by PDAs is exactly the CFLs and to know how to mentally visualize PDA algorithms as a way of quickly seeing that a language is a CFL---I will not on Midterm 1 ask you to explicitly build or draw PDAs, or to give (or demonstrate detailed knowledge of the internals of) the proofs showing that the class of languages accepted by PDAs is exactly the CFLs.
"Unioned" above really means unioned, so things that are in at least one part of the union are in scope, even if there are other parts of the union that they are not part of.
Midterm 1 will be March 1, 2023, 325PM-440PM, in class. There will not be a makeup exam (except for the rare and extraordinary case mentioned in the syllabus), and Midterm 1 counts for 32 percent of your course grade. Do not miss it. (Students, if any, accommodations from Disability Resources that make taking it at the above time impossible or will have longer time on the exam must by email exchange with me/the-grad-TAs (write to the three of us long before the exam at csc280gradta "at" cs.rochester.edu; you MUST have CETL issue a letter to me long, long before the exam so that the accommodation can be give and so that there is time to plan its implementation). have discussed the issue of when they will be taking the exam.
Do read the rules in the syllabus regarding what you can and cannot use during the midterms. However, let me cover or specify or respecify here some things. Basically, you can't use anything at all (no notes, no textbook, no calculator or computer or electronics, etc.; however, students, if any, who in light of an accommodation from CETL/Disability Resources regarding those or other aspects of exam-taking will be taking the exam at CETL of course will take the exam in the setting/conditions specified and provided by CETL/Disability Resources). The one exception to the "closed everything" rule is an important one, though. As per the syllabus, you may prepare and use one 8.5-by-11 sheet (writing on both sides is allowed; you may alternatively bring two 8.5-by-11 sheets on which each has one side with handwritten notes and one side that is totally blank) of handwritten cram-notes hand-prepared by yourself. (If taking the midterm at CETL, typically in the past---I don't know why---they will have you photocopy your above-mentioned cram-notes before starting the midterm and you may have the photocopy (but not the original) out during the midterm; the photocopy---at least as they typically have done it in the past though please consult with them if you have questions about their current process---will be turned in with the midterm (but not counted at all in the grading, and there is no promise it will be returned) and the original will remain in your possession, so you can use it for future purposes.)
That notes sheet can be a huge help on an exam, e.g., if you don't completely trust your memory. For example, if I were taking the exam, I might have use mine to bring in theorem statements (e.g., both pumping lemmas), definitions, exercises and their solutions (likely including model solutions of pumping lemma problems so I'd at least remember the template/format of those while taking the exam; but also likely including model solutions for problems of some of the other sorts we've done so that I at least saw the general look/format of such problems), proofs, etc.
Use *pen*--and indeed only blue or black pen (never red or purple as those might be used in grading your exam)--to write your answers.
I will not be giving out a "sample midterm" or its solutions. You should study not to echo a sample midterm, which might well incorrectly focus you just on the things that happened to be asked on it, but rather should study to make sure you have a good, broad, flexible command of the material. I also won't answer questions about the format of the exam or the format of its questions; I want you to study the material broadly for the sake of understanding it, not to study to match some comments on format.
I might (or might not) post for you a version of Midterm I's instructions, before the date of Midterm I. If I do (if I do it will be announced via BB), you definitely would want to read those ahead of time. (I say "a version" as some parts of the instructions might leak/reveal parts of the exam's context, and those parts would be on the exam's instructions but not on the posted-ahead-of-time version of the instructions. I might (or might not) separate out, on the exam, the instruction parts you'll have preread and those you won't have, so you won't have to re-read the parts you have read.
You are expected to know all the rules from the syllabus, but let me remind you of this info from the syllabus: "Note: No questions may be asked during the midterms, and none will be answered; the process breaks the flow and concentration of the class, can be unfair as to who gets what information due to having asked or not having asked questions (even if one tells the whole class something about a problem in the middle of the exam in response to a question, such as a correction/change to a problem, some people may have already spent/wasted time on that flawed problem and some may have not, and the former group will be put at a disadvantage just due to the order they tackled the questions in), and can be unfair if due to reasonable-accommodation issues the exam is taken at different times by different people. If you see on a midterm something that you're sure makes solving the problem impossible (or equivalent to something such as resolving P versus NP that is something I wouldn't possibly intentionally ask you on a midterm) or makes the problem meaningless or incoherent, what you should do is that as part of your answer (if the exam is of a format that allows such interjections; otherwise, you'll need to within the answer format the exam allows answer within that format) you should clearly explain what you have noticed, and why it seems to make the problem impossible or meaningless or incoherent. If what you notice seems to be a very minor technical typo and you are sure it is and you see the correction, you should (again, if in an exam format that allows such interjections to be written into answers) note that, fix it, and then solve the fixed problem (but if the original one was really what was meant, you probably won't get credit if you change it to a different problem; and just noticing for example a spelling error or a missed "the" doesn't get you out of having to solve a problem).
The "Midterm 1's Scope" section above defines Midterm 1's scope, and I likely will refer all questions on the scope to that above section, as it was written carefully. Nothing below alters the above specification of Midterm 1's Scope.
However, let me mention as a comment that, although you of course should know the entire set of things that are in scope, one facet of studying that often is extremely important is to review and thoroughly understand every exercise/problem that you have seen in class, or at workshops, or at ROHs, or on the slides, or that is a worked exercise in the "body" reading of the covered parts of Sipser. By thoroughly understand, I don't mean "have the problem and solution memorized without understanding why the solution solves the problem," but rather I mean that you should understand the flavor of the solution so well that you can use the idea/approach/technique in other settings, and even vary and adjust it as needed, or synthesize it with other things, as needed to solve new challenges on questions that fall within the general domain of the topics we have covered. (Although it is not impossible you will be asked problems you have seen before, it is very possible you will be asked problems you have not seen before. For example, if we have covered that first halves of regular sets are regular, you might be asked to show that second sevenths of regular languages are regular... and that in nature requires a very good understanding of and ability to generalize beyond the first halves proof, and indeed perhaps the ability to splice in also aspects of the guessing-state-and-using-Cartesian-products work that was part of our quotient-variants line of work.)
Again, the scope of Midterm 1 is as defined in the scope section above on this page, and nothing below alters that. But I mention in passing that the following are a few of the higher-profile or more difficult items, and skills/flavors/areas/problem-flavors, that we have covered (and though as I write this I have not yet written the exam so I do not know its questions, you surely will want to know very, very well all the following skills/flavors/areas/problem-flavors):
Again, the scope of Midterm 1 is as
defined in the scope section above on this page, and nothing below
alters that.
However, often
people naturally enough
want to know if the various questions
on the exam might be easy or hard, and perhaps some people are hoping
things will fall on the "easy" side. So I mention in passing that it
would likely be a mistake---potentially a very bad one---to assume
that (though of course hard and easy differ to different people; but
the best way to find questions are doable is come in very well
prepared!). For example, if one is thinking that no "fractional"
languages question could possibly be asked,
that would in fact not be something
one could rely on (and there
might very well be at least one fractional languages question
on the exam); and similarly, if one is thinking that no "string
of x's and y's" type of question (the ones that are in some sense
variants on the quotients issue) could possibly be asked,
one
might very well on the exam find that one was wrong in assuming that.
More generally and bottom line: please come in with
confident command of the material. Everything thing listed as being
in scope is in scope. And above I also "mention in passing that the
following [i.e., the bullet-point list above] are a few of the
higher-profile or more difficult items, and
skills/flavors/areas/problem-flavors, that we have covered." So I'd
urge you to study intensely, using all the tools, such as office
hours (OOHs and ROHs, and you can attend extra ROHs if the TA teaching it
allows it), attending
your WS (and perhaps some extras),
reviewing the
material and problems we've covered, reviewing the techniques and tools we have
covered, reviewing the recordings we've made of lectures and WSs (and
any materials the WS TAs added in BB such as slides and any items
in the doc cam folder),
and working with fellow students to master the material.
Coming in very well-prepared would be a very good idea.
Posted 2023/2/13; last modified 2023/2/14/945am.