Exams

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For Fall 2020, there will be one midterm exam. You will be given 110 minutes to complete the exam. The exam will use the CBTF Online for proctoring and PrairieLearn for question delivery and submission.

Please navigate to the CBTF website ASAP, associate yourself with the course, and register for the exam:

• https://cbtf.engr.illinois.edu/sched/

After that, please read the documentation carefully:

• https://cbtf.engr.illinois.edu/cbtf-online/students

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Date and Times

The exam will take place on:

• Monday, October 5th, 7:00 PM, Champign Time

Format

The exam will be given through PrairieLearn. It will be extremely similar to the usual weekly quizzes, with three key differences:

1. You will have multiple attempts, but not unlimited attempts
   • You will be given three attempts for checkbox questions. The first attempt will allow full credit. The next two attempts will allow half credit.
   • You will be given six attempts for numeric questions. The first two attempts allow full credit. The next two attempts will allow 75% credit. The last two attempts allow half credit.
2. For each attempt you will have the same variant of the question.
3. After submitting an attempt, you will not be given additional hints. You will only be told if your submission is correct or not.

Content

The exam will cover the content contained in Quizzes 01 - 05, with an emphasis on Quizzes 02 - 05. Study accordingly!

Allowed Resources

When you open the exam, there will be a list of allowed resources. That list will include:

• RStudio or RStudio Cloud
  • You may reference the documentation for functions from within RStudio.
• The course website: https://stat432.org/
• The course textbook: https://statisticallearning.org/
  • Also any notes linked within the textbook.
• Any videos hosted on YouTube or Media Space. But if you are watching videos during the exam, you’re going to have a bad time.
• Any code you have previously written for quizzes, accessed through RStudio.

You will not have access to:

• Previous quizzes.
• Any handwritten or paper notes.

CBTF Online

Exams in STAT 432 will be scheduled and administered through the CBTF Online. Please read all documentation provided.

• https://cbtf.engr.illinois.edu/cbtf-online/index.html

DRES Accommodations

If you have accommodations identified by the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services (DRES) for exams, please email your Letter of Accommodations to Carleen Sacris, CBTF Manager, at sacris1@illinois.edu.

Academic Integrity

In short, do not cheat. Any policies of the CBTF are the policies of this course, and academic integrity infractions related to the CBTF are infractions in this course. In addition to the Academic Integrity policies outlined by the CBTF, STAT 432 will hold itself to a higher standard.

Even with the use of the CBTF Online, we will not easily be able to detect all cheating. If we do detect cheating, that means it will have been an extremely flagrant violation and we will seek the maximum possible punishment which at minimum would be a failing grade for the course. PrairieLearn will ask you to accept an “honor code” at the start of the exam. You have been warned. Act accordingly.

Technology

Because you are using your own computer for this exam, you should be sure that your R and RStudio are setup and ready to go.

R Packages

You should be sure to have the following packages installed:

• tidyverse
• caret
• rpart
• rpart.plot
• mlbench
• glmnet
• randomforest
• cvms
• ISLR

More generally, if you were able to complete the first five quizzes using your setup, you are likely ready to go.

Issues

If you encounter a (non-coding) technology issue during the exam, you must file an incident report with a proctor. Without documentation, we cannot (and will not) provide accommodation for technology errors encountered during an exam.

If you encounter issues with R, remember this:

Many technology issues can be solved by simply restarting RStudio.

If you feel that the correct answer is not accepted for a particular question, do both of the following:

1. Submit an issue describing why your answer is correct using the “Report an error in this question” button.
2. Submit your code to obtain your answer using the “Attach text” button on the right side of the screen. Do not attach a file, use the attach text feature.

Questions that are disputed after the exam that do not have the relevant code and issue description to support your claim will likely be ignored. While errors in creating the questions are certainly possible, it is also likely that you simply do not understand the question. It is a better strategy to simply move on to another question than to worry about a single question for a long time.

Tips for Studying

• When taking quizzes, do not copy-paste any code except for a question’s starter code. Reference, but do not copy code from the notes or elsewhere. Even if you have these resources available during the exam, searching for code will slow down your progress. Also, by not typing the code yourself, you will not understand the code as well.
• Window management (switching between RStudio and PrairieLearn) is an extremely useful skill when taking CBTF exams. Use [alt] + [tab] on Windows and Linux or [⌘] + [tab] on MacOS.
  • Additionally, copy-pasting via keyboard shortcuts is extremely useful.
    • Copy: [ctrl] + [c] ([⌘] + [c])
    • Paste: [ctrl] + [v] ([⌘] + [v])
• Read any and all documentation linked above!

Exam Directions

What follows is the messaging you will be given at the start of the exam. Feel free to read it before the exam!

You are allowed to use:

• RStudio or RStudio Cloud (You may reference the documentation for functions from within RStudio.)
• The course website: https://stat432.org/
• The course textbook, and any notes linked within: https://statisticallearning.org/
• Any videos hosted on YouTube or Media Space.
• Any code you have previously written for quizzes, accessed through RStudio.

You do not have access to:

• Previous quizzes.
• Any handwritten or paper notes.

Some things to be aware of:

• You do not have unlimited attempts at each question. You do have multiple attempts at each question.
• You will only receive one variant of a question. Follow-up attempts at the same question will use the same variant.
• For checkbox questions, you have three attempts. The first attempt for full credit, the remaining two attempts for half credit.
• For numeric questions, you have six attempts. The first two attempts allow full credit. The next two attempts will allow 75% credit. The last two attempts allow half credit.
• You are free to reference the exam information provided on the course website: https://fall-2020.stat432.org/exams.html
• If you encounter a (non-coding) technology issue during the exam, you must file an incident report with a proctor. Without documentation, we cannot (and will not) provide accommodation for technology errors encountered during an exam.
• Many technology issues can be solved by simply restarting RStudio.
• If you believe a question is not accepting a correct answer, be sure to submit an issue, and attach your code as text. If you do not do so, you forfeit the ability to contest an incorrect answer.

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