Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!aioe.org!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Ian Collins Newsgroups: comp.programming Subject: Re: A question about a programming class Date: Mon, 09 May 2011 10:28:42 +1200 Lines: 41 Message-ID: <92ojoqF82qU3@mid.individual.net> References: <2klds659scma0b2956paq2oepeu5n9kuup@4ax.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net jtkPOinRFH+qztnMuBlKFQf37+z8Yia3y+cxvqH4YxgASw8mo5 Cancel-Lock: sha1:ql5APODrPuSeO8bOzsEUMqe5F38= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS i86pc; en-US; rv:1.9.2.9) Gecko/20101021 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1.4 In-Reply-To: Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.programming:286 On 05/ 9/11 08:25 AM, Chad wrote: > On May 8, 10:49 am, rossum wrote: >> On Sat, 7 May 2011 19:01:53 -0700 (PDT), Chad >> wrote: >>> On May 7, 6:57 pm, Chad 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