U ARE CAught!

U - Unary Operators ( ++ , -- , + , - , ! )
A - Arithmetic Operators ( * , / , % ) ~ ( + , - )
R - Relational Operators ( <= , => , < , > )
E - Equality Operators ( == , != )
C - Conditional Operators ( & ) ~ ( | ) ~ ( && ) ~ ( || )
A - Assignment Operators ( = , += , -= , *= , /= )

Everyone needs some motivation to carry on in life. This is a side-note to myself.

Maybe I need to get a whiteboard to hang up in my room to motivate myself like Jim Barton did ;)

To be honest, I fear a lot for a lot of people in this module: IS200

However, repeated conversations over this topic has done nothing to alleviate my fear. On the other hand, it has brought my acceptance to the fact that if one cannot pass IS200, once cannot move on to future programming modules, because one would only suffer even more in future.

Such is the cruelty of IS200.

The final paper will decide the fates of a lot of people this year: whether they pass or fail IS200.

How will the standard of the paper be then? Given the attitude that we have carried forward from our junior colleges and our polytechnics, we will assume that:

1. Since the previous lab test yielded horrible results, the instructors will go easy on us for the final exam paper since they will want decent pass rates.
2. If everyone does badly for the paper in general, everyone's results will be moderated upwards to reflect the relative standard of the students.

The above are myths. Why so?

We are now schooling in a university. A university has no need to meet a minimum pass rate for its modules. A university is only concerned with the quality of the students that graduates from it.
Essentially, there is nothing to suggest that the final exam will be any less harder than what it was for the recent lab test. In fact, one can expect the final exam to be even harder than that.

Fact: WYSIWYG - What You Score Is What You Get. From my current understanding, IS200 is a non-moderation module. What You Score Is What You Get.

I might seem very mean by writing all these, but the truth is that I am writing this because I care. Let me tell you a story:

5 years ago, my secondary school just finished its preliminary examinations. Because I do not want this post to appear on a google search, I will not name the school in this post. However, you can see the name of the school on the right where I stated my secondary school.

The prelim results were terrible. Students were flunking their exams so badly it seemed like the 'O' levels would be a disaster. Guess what the principal did? He moderated all our results upwards so we would all be able to get into the JC of our choice for the Preliminary Admission Exercise.

Wow. One barely had to study, and when our prelim results slip came out, the results were amazingly good. Personally, I scored a B4/C5 for both my English papers and my results turned out to be an A2. Talk about amazing moderation. It created a false sense of optimal results throughout the school. Students slacked. They already secured a position in the JC of their choice, so why bother to study so hard?

After the 'O' levels, everyone went to the JC of their choice, where they happily spent their first three months. Then, the results were released, and reality struck home.

The average score for my secondary school in that year was around 14~16 points. I cannot remember the exact score, but that was the extent of how badly we did that year. It was the worst year in my school's history. Most of the students from my secondary school were kicked out from the junior colleges they had spent the first three months in. They would cry, but nothing could be done to help them. Such is the illusion of safety.

This is the same as what is happening in IS200 now. If you tell people that the final exam will be okay, if you tell people that we will not fail IS200, then you will be repeating what happened to my school 5 years ago.

Shatter your illusion of safety. IS200 is a module that requires much consistency and effort. Also, it is not true that not everyone can do well in this module. The amount of effort that is placed into this module matters, and the method that is being employed to study this module matters much too.

Last year's sample final paper had this question: To write out a Pascal's triangle generator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_triangle

//Enter the number of rows in the Pascal's Triangle: 3
// 1
// 1 1
//1 2 1

Expect to handle problems like these on a written paper for this final exam, and you will be able to handle this exam well.
The above can be written based on what we have learnt thus far. Feel free to give it a try.

Remember this: If you cannot handle the Individual Project, you cannot handle the Final Exam.

Re-visit your foundations and climb back up to the top again. Check that you know your foundations well. A strong foundation is extremely important for IS200. Don't rush your progress if you are not sure.
Like I told my buddy before, a strong foundation matters much more than knowing a lot. Consistency matters much more than skill in the long run.

If you finished reading till this line, congrats. You should know what to do next. GO CONQUER IS200! Jiayou!