Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

Introduction to Computer Science Free sample edition

Why this matters

A nursing student checking a dose calculator before a shift and a business major double-checking the formula behind a sales report need one habit: predict what the code will do, read it for the classic slips, then run it.

In plain language

This week you look back at the first seven weeks and see that one question ties them together: what will this program print? You review each topic with one short program you have already met, and you guess its output before you look. You also pick up one new habit, the classic-bug checklist (six small mistakes you look for before you run any program). Most wrong answers in a first programming course come from those six slips, not from deep confusion. The habit carries you into the second half of the course, where programs hold whole lists of values and one wrong character costs more.

Already covered: expressions, types, strings, conditions, loops, and functions (Weeks 1 to 7).
This week: one program per topic, the classic-bug checklist, and the midterm.
How they connect: each slip on the checklist is a surprise from an earlier week.
Where we're going next: Week 9, Lists, where the checklist keeps many values straight.

Focus

Can you predict what a short program prints, and catch the six classic slips before you run it?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

[ ] predict and run one program per topic from Weeks 1 to 7
[ ] tell what a function call hands back, including None
[ ] read any program for the six classic slips before running it

To-do

Plan your week

Read Chapter 8 (about 35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
Do the practice set (about 20 minutes) and the discussion (about 45 minutes).
Use the study guide and practice exam, then take the midterm.

This week's checkpoint: name the six classic slips and the one-line fix for each.

You've got this

You have done this work already. Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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