COMP3 - JUN 2016 Discussion Thread

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Reply 80

KungMaule

This exam is gonna go awfully I can already tell

Reply 81

Lewis7_

Original post by KungMaule

This exam is gonna go awfully I can already tell

This, IT3 and F293(Business) all in the same day, I have no idea how Im going to do it. (Spoiler: I wont!!!) I need to get at least C/B in all these..

Any ideas on what i need to revise for comp? Like quick points i can just ram in.

Reply 82

bartbarrow

Original post by Lewis7_

Make sure you can write SQL queries (DDL and DML)
Practice a trace table maybe
Make sure you can convert floating point -> denary and back with negatives and also quote the three (main) errors that could occur (underflow, overflow, cancellation)
Be able to calculate absolute / relative error

All of those should get you some easy marks

I'll be around all evening, happy to answer any questions before the exam tomorrow. I got (near enough!) full UMS last year and am hoping to achieve an A* in this exam tomorrow so hopefully I know what I'm talking about!

Good luck everyone

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 83

KungMaule

Original post by Lewis7_

Yeah, I've got Chemistry 5 tomorrow too.

In addition to what the guy before me said (which is all very good. I got a high ums last year, but we had a teaching change this year and the new people are awful, so we haven't really been taught it :frown:

), I'd also add that it's worth going over IPs, Standard Stacks and Queue pseudo-code stuff, besides that whatever you can.

Reply 84

Lewis7_

Original post by bartbarrow

Make sure you can write SQL queries (DDL and DML)
Practice a trace table maybe
Make sure you can convert floating point -> denary and back with negatives and also quote the three (main) errors that could occur (underflow, overflow, cancellation)
Be able to calculate absolute / relative error

All of those should get you some easy marks

I'll be around all evening, happy to answer any questions before the exam tomorrow. I got full UMS last year and am hoping to achieve an A* in this exam tomorrow so hopefully I know what I'm talking about!

Good luck everyone

Thanks! Should i avoid spending ages memorising the Big-O stuff?

Baseband is when all of the bandwitdh of one medium is used up for a single transmission, while broadband is sent asynchronously, right? - Im trying to just memorise key terms now, but I think thats failing, words are starting to mean nothing. :/

Reply 85

marioman

Original post by bartbarrow

I got full UMS last year

Even in COMP2?! Our college had over 50 candidates last year and the highest COMP2 mark was 70/80.

Reply 86

bartbarrow

Original post by Lewis7_

Do you do maths? If so, O(n^2), O(n), O(logn).. should all look familiar on a graph which is a good start (they could quite easily be familiar to you without having done maths though)

If you really have to pick and choose I would try and remember the order of efficiency. If you have a graphical calculator you could always plot the graphs on it to help you

O(1) < O(logn)< O(n) < O(nlogn) < O(n^2) < O(n^3) < O(n^k) ... < O(2^n) < O(3^n) < O(k^n) < O(n!)

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 87

bartbarrow

Original post by marioman

Even in COMP2?! Our college had over 50 candidates last year and the highest COMP2 mark was 70/80.

Sorry I guess I meant near enough full UMS, I got 120 in COMP1 and around 78/79 in COMP2

Reply 88

Lewis7_

Original post by bartbarrow

Do you do maths? If so, O(n^2), O(n), O(logn).. should all look familiar on a graph which is a good start (they could quite easily be familiar to you without having done maths though)

If you really have to pick and choose I would try and remember the order of efficiency. If you have a graphical calculator you could always plot the graphs on it to help you

O(1) < O(n) < O(logn) < O(nlogn) < O(n^2) < O(n^3) < O(n^k) ... < O(2^n) < O(3^n) < O(k^n) < O(n!)

You see, thats my issue. I dont do maths, But remembering the order will most likely be the way to go, thanks! :smile:

(What is the order I should remember? As i dont remember being taught all of the ones you posted above..)

If you can't tell, ive hit a brick wall with stress and panic, I just did a mock and half way through stopped and checked, I had practically no marks.. I dont know if its just because im tired and panic'd or if i genuinally dont know anything.. with computer science being my strongest subject.. I have no idea.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 89

bartbarrow

Original post by Lewis7_

You see, thats my issue. I dont do maths, But remembering the order will most likely be the way to go, thanks! :smile:

I completely forgot about the baseband/broadband question. I would just remember this:

Baseband - A system that uses a single data channel in which the whole bandwidth of the medium is dedicated to one channel at a time

Broadband - A system that uses multiple data channels in which the whole bandwidth of the medium is dedicated to multiple channels at a time (I.E. they can be sent simultaneously)

Baseband is commonly used in LANs while Broadband is used in WANS/the internet

Reply 90

bartbarrow

Original post by Lewis7_

You see, thats my issue. I dont do maths, But remembering the order will most likely be the way to go, thanks! :smile:

I posted the order in my previous message

The main ones are O(1) < O(logn) < O(n) < O(nlogn) < O(n^k) < O(k^n) < O(n!)

Where k is an integer above 1, so n^2 is less efficient than n^3, all of which are less efficient than 2^n etc...

nlogn is the time complexity of insertion sort, which you will need to know

n! is n factorial, where the factorial function takes n and multiplies it by every number underneath it down to 1, e.g. 5! = 5*4*3*2*1. This can get very big quickly (to the point that 100! doesn't work on most calculators but 2^100 is fine)

Remember you can bring in a calculator tomorrow for the exam, so the best thing to do would be to plug a large number (maybe 100) or so and compare the values. Any less than that and you won't get the right answer

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 91

Lewis7_

Original post by bartbarrow

I posted the order in my previous message

The main ones are O(1) < O(n) < O(logn) < O(nlogn) < O(n^k) < O(k^n) < O(n!)

Where k is an integer above 1, so n^2 is less efficient than n^3, all of which are less efficient than 2^n etc...

nlogn is the time complexity of insertion sort, which you will need to know

n! is n factorial, where the factorial function takes n and multiplies it by every number underneath it down to 1, e.g. 5! = 5*4*3*2*1. This can get very big quickly (to the point that 100! doesn't work on most calculators but 2^100 is fine)

Remember you can bring in a calculator tomorrow for the exam, so the best thing to do would be to plug a large number (maybe 100) or so and compare the values. Any less than that and you won't get the right answer

Thank you, you are a life saver, expect more dumb questions from me soon! :P

Question, this is different to your order, what one is correct?:
http://prntscr.com/bj8jty

I also never thought of that calculator thing..

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 92

bartbarrow

Original post by Lewis7_

Apologies! O(logn) is more efficient than O(n). My bad :colondollar:

Reply 93

Lewis7_

Original post by bartbarrow

Apologies! O(logn) is more efficient than O(n). My bad :colondollar:

Thanks for the clarification :smile:

Reply 94

bartbarrow

If anyone is interested in an easier (in my mind) way of converting binary to denary, this way saves you having to move the decimal point in your head and you can just stick it straight in your calculator as it is:

Let's say you have (June 2013 paper)

0.1010000 / 0110

Leave the mantissa as it is and add up each bit. In this case it would be (1/2) + (1/8) = 5/8

Multiply the value you calculated by 2 to the power of the exponent, in this case 2^6
=(5/8) * 2^6 = 40

This works for any kind of question about this that they might throw at us, negatives and all.

Reply 95

Filipo

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has on all the topics. Lets hope it's going to be a nice A* tomorrow!! :biggrin:

Reply 96

StarStruck_98

What kind of 6-8 mark questions could come up? Any chance of a nasty database one like last years paper?

Reply 97

bartbarrow

Original post by StarStruck_98

What kind of 6-8 mark questions could come up? Any chance of a nasty database one like last years paper?

It's not impossible... maybe a simulation one or networking/security one

Reply 98

TheKian

Everone in my class is looking at a U,E or D in this paper. I need a C to get an A overall.

Is my class just **** or are others really struggling.

With 12 hours to go, I'm not sure there's much I can do apart from hope for questions I can do.

Anyone got any advice on the long winded questions?

Reply 99

fuzzedshadow

Is it just me or are grade boundaries really high for this paper, considering that they aren't particularly easy and that the markschemes aren't very forgiving either? :L