About
Syllabus
Course Tools
Core Exam Preparation
Week 1: Decomposition
Take-home assessment #1
M 9/2: Getting started with scheme
W 9/4: Algorithmic decomposition
F 9/6: Reading and Writing Procedures
1. Procedures
2. Lab: Practice with procedures
Week 2: Working with data
Take-home assessment #2
M 9/9: Mental models of computation
W 9/11: Expressions and Types
F 9/13: Booleans, Predicates, and Conditionals
Week 3: Theme week #1
Take-home assessment #3 (Music)
Take-home assessment #3 (Images)
M 9/16: Software Engineering Fundamentals
W 9/18: Rhythm (Music)/Colors (Images)
1. (No reading for the Music section!)
2. Lab: The Music Library (Music)
3. Design and Color (Images)
4. RGB (Images)
5. Lab: RGB Colors (Images)
F 9/20: Scales (Music)/Image Transformation (Images)
Week 4: Software engineering in the small
M 9/23: Local bindings
1. Local bindings
2. Lab: Local Bindings
W 9/25: Pair Programming
1. Pair Programming
F 9/27: Exam #1
Week 5: List processing
Take-home assessment #4 (Music)
Take-home assessment #4 (Images)
M 9/30: Lists
W 10/2: List processing
1. The Big Three
2. Lab: Lists More
F 10/4: List processing practice and code style
1. Code Style
2. Lab: Wrangling Data
Week 6: Recursively-defined functions
Take-home assessment #5
M 10/7: Recursive decomposition
1. Thinking recursively
2. Lab: Pattern matching and recursive tracing
W 10/9: Introduction to list recursion
F 10/11: List motions
1. List motions
2. Lab: More list practice
Week 7: Recursive design
Take-home assessment #6
M 10/14: Recursion over numbers
1. Recursion over numbers
2. Lab: Numeric recursion
W 10/16: Implementing the big three
1. (No reading for today!)
2. Lab: Implementing the big three
F 10/18: Tail recursion
1. Tail recursion
2. Lab: Tail recursion
Fall break: 10/21–10/25
Week 8: Additional topics in recursive design
M 10/28: Dictionaries
1. Association lists
2. Lab: Letter inventory
W 10/30: Pause for breath
1. (No reading today!)
F 11/1: Exam #2
Week 9: Effectful programming
Take-home assessment #7
1. Music: Improv Engine
2. Images: World Clouds
M 11/4: Vectors
1. Vectors
2. Lab: Vectors
W 11/6: Sequencing and effects
1. Sequencing and effects
2. Lab: Sequencing and effects
F 11/8: Randomness
1. Randomness
2. Lab: Random language
Week 10: Theme week #2
M 11/11: Iteration
W 11/13: Audio Envelopes (Music)/Animation (Images)
F 11/15: Project kick-off
1. The Final Project
Week 11: Structures and tree-like data
Take-home assessment #8
1. Images: Pixel Problems
2. Music: Simple Synthesizer
M 11/18: Structures
W 11/20: Trees
1. Trees
2. Lab: Binary Trees
F 11/22: Project work day!
Week 12: Tree recursion
M 11/25: Tree recursion
W 11/27: Project work day!
(Thanksgiving break: 11/28–11/29)
Week 13: Computational complexity
M 12/2: Counting operations
W 12/4: Pause for breath
F 12/6: Exam #3
Week 14: Conclusion
M 12/9: Case study: searching and sorting
1. Searching
2. Sorting
W 12/11: Project presentations
F 12/13: Presentation wrap-up and conclusion
Finals week: 12/16–12/20
T 12/17, 9–12 PM: Exam #4 (section 01)
W 12/18, 9–12 PM: Exam #4 (section 02)
F 12/20, 5 PM: all work due deadline

Core Exam Preparation

Core exams for the course are _timed, in-person, paper examinations. While you are not allowed to bring notes, the exam questions will contain references to appropriate library functions when appropriate.

Because the exams are paper-based, we encourage you to be intentional in your studying. Programming on a computer is different from paper where you have nothing in the way of syntax highlighting and error checking. While we are somewhat forgiving when it comes to little syntax issues, e.g., missing parentheses, you will not have time to mince over the syntax of a lambda! Subsequently, you should be comfortable in writing down the basic constructs of our language on paper.

To prepare for the course's core exams, you should:

Review the list of course learning outcomes for the exam found in the course syllabus.
Review any quiz and exam questions that you missed as they will appear on the next exam!
Take problems from previous assignments, e.g., reading problems, labs, and take-home assessments, and see if you can redo them on paper without support.
Bring any questions that arise to the course staff!

Additionally, Professor Perlmutter's course website has examples of previous exam questions for you to review if you would like to know the format of a question for a particular learning outcome.