Exams
- There will be 2 exams, given online. One will be given in the evening of Thursday, March 6. The other one will be given in the official University Final Examination time slot.
- Each exam will be administered using Canvas Quizzing.
- Each exam will consist of 3 short segments. You must complete all 3 segments within the exam time window.
This class will have 2 exams, weighted equally. The exams will not be cummulative. The first exam covers the “2D material” (the first 5 1/2 workbooks including curves and the train), and the second exam covers the material in class after curves (the “3D material”). The second exam will not ask questions about 2D. The material is cumulative (the concepts we learn about in 2D are built upon in 3D).
- The exams will be “semi-synchronous” you may take the exam within the time slot, with flexibility of how you use your time within the slot.
- Each exam will consist of 3 short (20 minute) timed segments. Once you start a segment, you have 20 minutes to finish it. However, you can choose when to start it. So, for example, you could take them back to back (and finish in an hour) or you can take breaks between the pieces. You can start at the beginning of the window (and be done early), or start later (give yourself enough time to finish).
- You may not collaborate with others. You should not talk about the exam or its topics during the exam window. While it is OK to read about graphics topics (you can consult resources during the exam), you may not write about them (e.g., post a question to an online forum or an AI).
- You may not communicate with other students in class during the exam window (even when you are not taking the exam).
- The exam is “open book” - we do not limit your access to resources during the exam (except that you cannot communicate with others).
- Writing a question to an LLM (like ChatGPT or co-pilot) is just like asking a person (i.e., not allowed).
The exam time windows are:
- Midterm: Thursday, March 6, 5:45pm to 9:00pm
- Final: (subject to the registrar’s schedule) Sunday, May 4th, 7:45am to 11am (the window extends 90 minutes beyond the official exam time)
Evening Exam Time Slot
The midterm exam will be given on a Thursday evening. We may not be able to make arrangements if the times do not work for you.
Officially, the University has evening exam time slots 5:45 to 7:15 and 7:30 to 9:00. So officially, the exam must be in one of those time slots. I will give students the choice: a student has the option to select either one. In fact, you can choose both - and use the entire window if you like.
Remember, the window is the time you can take the exam segments. You can only spend 60 minutes (20 minutes per segment) working on the exam. You can start at 5:45 and be done by 6:45. You can start at 7:45 and work to 8:45. In practice, you should give yourself time between segments (if nothing else, to move between segments, but taking a break can be good). Of course, you don’t need to take all 20 minutes per segment. If you want, you could start the exam at 8:30 and race through it in 15 minutes - I doubt you can get a good grade doing this, but, in theory…
You cannot work beyond the end of the time window.
The Final Exam Time Slot
The official time set by the registrar (they may change it) is Sunday, May 4th, from 7:45am to 9:45am. We will extend the window by 90 minutes past the official end time (i.e. until 11:15am). This should allow students who have an exam in the official slot to take this one as well.
Remember, the window is the time you can take the exam segments. You can only spend 60 minutes (20 minutes per segment) working on the exam. You can start at 7:45 and be done by 8:45 (if you don’t take breaks between segments). You can start at 10am and be done by 11am. But, you must be done with all segments by 11:15
Exam Philosophy And Rationale
Giving online exams is hard (for a number of reasons). I’ve learned a lot from past experience. But exams in person have different challenges. I think online is better.
I do not intend to use a proctoring service. However, I reserve the right to use one if academic integrity is a problem in the class. I find these services kindof invasive and problematic and hope I do not need to resort to using one.
Part (and only part) of the problem is academic integrity. Normally, I trust students: if you want to cheat, it is your loss. But cheating hurts those who are honest. This New York Times op-ed really resonated with me: “If my classmates are going to cheat on an online exam, why can’t I?”. The responsibility for a fair exam is on both of us (student and professor): you (students) should act ethically, but I should create an environment that encourages good behavior.
Therefore, rather than using a proctoring service, I will try to use exam design principles to discourage cheating. Not because I don’t trust you - but because I want you not to feel like everyone else is cheating.
The ideas:
- Smaller, lower-stakes, exams
- The exams will be “open book” - it’s up to me to develop questions that you cannot efficiently find the (correct) answer to by searching. There’s just no way to give a closed-book exam remotely that isn’t obtrusive. And there is no practical way for me to limit what resources you have access to.
- Time pressured - this is the other part of open book, otherwise you could research the answer or write a program to solve the problem.
- Administered by Canvas Quizzes. You’ll take the exam right in Canvas. This means I am limited in the kinds of questions I can ask.
- Semi-Synchronous. We need everyone to take things at the same time (so a student can’t finish and reveal information about the exam). However, we want to give students the flexibility in when they take the exam. We want to limit the amount of time that we have to cut off communication.
- You must be able to finish the exam in the exam period.
Some specifics:
- The exams are given outside of lecture times. I don’t want to give up lectures in the middle of the semester.
- The exam windows are fixed. We want to be able to answer questions about the exam before it starts and after it ends.
The Key Rules
You must not communicate with other students in class during the exam window (even when you are not taking the exam).
You must not discuss the exam with anyone (except course staff) during the exam window. This includes any form of writing (posting, replying, messaging, etc.) to any forums (Piazza, Stack Exchange, Discord, etc.). You may send a private message to the course staff during the exam if there is a problem. Please include your email address, as we may prefer to follow up that way.
You must avoid listening/reading to people violating the rules; e.g., if someone other than course staff makes a posting or message during the exam period, you should not read it.
The exam is “open book” - we will not try to prevent you from reading (or viewing) existing materials. The exam timing will limit your ability to do research on the answers to the questions. Remember, that writing (asking a question, or posting an answer) is not allowed during the exam window. And, reading something illegal is academic misconduct.
You may use a “calculator”, which includes writing programs. But, be careful of the time it takes. The questions are designed that you should be able to figure them out “by hand” (with pencil and paper) more quickly than trying to program.
We must be strict about the start/stop time of the exam window because students in class are allowed to discuss the exam and class material outside of the window.
The rules of proper academic conduct apply. See the course page on Academic Conduct and Collaboration for more details.
Class policy is that you should treat “AI agents” (e.g., ChatGPT or GitHub Co-Pilot) as you do another student, which means you can’t ask them for help during the exam (see Grading).
In case of technical difficulties
Inevitably something will go wrong for someone.
If you have a problem:
If you have a technical issue during the exam, try to complete the quiz you are taking as best you can. You may want to take a screen shot of the problem. You may want to save your work (e.g., a screenshot or print-to-PDF) if you fear Canvas might mess up
After completing the current Quiz, send a private message to the course staff on Piazza explaining the problem. If you have an internet failure that precludes accessing Piazza, you can send email to the Professor. If you can’t even send email, send a message as soon as your internet access is restored.
Please alert us to technical problems as promptly as possible.
We will not answer content questions during the exam. If you feel a question has an error or is ambiguous, take your best guess at what the question means. The questions usually ask for the “most correct” answer (in cases where you feel no answer is exactly correct).
Please check Piazza and Canvas for announcements before beginning each Quiz.
Canvas may allow you to take the quizzes in the wrong order. In the event you start taking the wrong quiz, complete the one you have started. Then complete the remaining quizzes in the correct order.
Technical problems do happen. During the Spring 2020 559 Final, the internet went out in my neighborhood! I had to proctor it by phone (fortunately, the peer mentors and TAs were in a different neighborhood).
Accomodations for McBurney Students
If you have a McBurney arrangement for 1.5X time, we have this on the official McBurney list. You do not need to contact us.
We will set canvas to give you 30 minutes rather than 20 per segment. You must still complete the quizzes within the exam window, but you be given longer to take each segment. This means that in order to take all of your additional time, you must start the exam relatively promptly at the beginning of the window.
Because of limitations of Canvas, portions of the quiz may not be compatible with screen readers or other assistive technologies. If you are visually impaired and rely on screen reading technology for viewing the web, please contact the course staff before the exam.
(This page is copied from Professor Gleicher’s CS559 Spring 2023 and updated for Spring 2025)