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Re: A question about a programming class

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On 05/ 9/11 08:25 AM, Chad wrote:
> On May 8, 10:49 am, rossum<rossu...@coldmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Sat, 7 May 2011 19:01:53 -0700 (PDT), Chad<cdal...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> On May 7, 6:57 pm, Chad<cdal...@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>> I'm taking an introductory java programming class at the local
>>>> community college. The question is about the exams. The professor
>>>> gives us a couple of programming problems on the exam. I can get the
>>>> logic. The thing that is biting me is that the professor docks me for
>>>> having a missing semicolon or forgetting to include some kind of
>>>> modifier. Ie, forgetting to have the word static in front of one of
>>>> functions.
>>
>>>> I tend to forget this kind of stuff because he doesn't give us much
>>>> time to complete his exam and the problems tend to be fairly long. I'm
>>>> more concerned about being able to actually answer the questions. Is
>>>> there some kind of trick to avoiding these kinds of errors? Do I have
>>>> to practice more? Or do I have to figure out someway to maintain my
>>>> concentration during the exam?
>>
>>> For example, the last exam was 65 points. He docked me 1 point for
>>> every missing semi-colon.
>>
>> Part of the skill of programming is a nit-picking attention to detail.
>> The Professor is right.  With misplaced semicolons your program will
>> either not compile or, much worse, will compile but not do what you
>> want it to.
>>
> Is there some kind of trick to this when your given like a 60 minute
> time limit to complete the exam?

Care and attention to detail.  Those of us old enough to remember 
sending away our programs on punched cards soon learned that lesson!

School pupils loose marks in English exams for missing punctuation, so 
why shouldn't programming students?

By the way, do you really have professor teaching at a community college?

-- 
Ian Collins

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A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-07 18:57 -0700
  Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-07 19:01 -0700
    Re: A question about a programming class rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-05-08 18:49 +0100
      Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 13:25 -0700
        Re: A question about a programming class Robert Spanjaard <spamtrap@arumes.com> - 2011-05-08 23:04 +0200
        Re: A question about a programming class Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-09 10:28 +1200
          Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-08 16:56 -0700
          Re: A question about a programming class rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-05-09 13:09 +0100
        Re: A question about a programming class Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 08:01 -0400
      Re: A question about a programming class Pavel Lepin <p.lepin@dyninno.com> - 2011-05-09 12:17 +0300
        Re: A question about a programming class Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-05-10 12:50 +0100
          Re: A question about a programming class pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2011-05-10 09:32 -0400
            Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-10 10:14 -0700
          Re: A question about a programming class Pavel Lepin <p.lepin@dyninno.com> - 2011-05-10 18:05 +0300
    Re: A question about a programming class Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-05-09 16:34 -0700
  Re: A question about a programming class Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 08:00 -0400
    Re: A question about a programming class Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2011-05-09 10:21 -0700

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