Up until the day of one of my CS exams, I was extremely confident in my abilities. I didn’t have much trouble with the homework or projects, as was reflected in my high grades on all of them. However, I just got back my midterm to see that I got a little above a 70… And I am beyond shocked. I noticed that I made mostly stupid mistakes probably out of my anxiety but I’m still upset that this is going to drag my overall grade down. The only way I can make up for it is to do well on the next exam but the content of this class is getting so much harder.
What are some good ways to prepare for CS exams in general? Should I code on paper and review the notes every day or evening? I’m at a loss at how I could’ve done so badly, especially seeing as how my friends did better than me. My friends always had trouble and they’d ask me for help, sometimes even copying my code for projects or homework. I just don’t get it. Am I a bad test taker? Is there a way I can get better on the next midterm? How can I prevent my anxiety and nerves from messing me up? Thank you!
Also, the class average was in the 80s, so I just felt like a complete idiot.
Just a note, how accurate this advice actually is depends a lot on your class. Hopefully it’s still some help though!
I’m guessing this is your first CS class? I had this exact thing happen to me in my first CS class, and I’m currently a senior in CS. I also wound up with a B in the class overall (one point away from a B+). So don’t lose hope!
The important thing here is that you can identify the mistakes that you made. That in and of itself shows that you do have an understanding of the material, even if you did make silly mistakes on the actual exam. What’s the best thing to do now? Look over those mistakes. Find the trends; do you consistently forget the same couple steps in multiple questions? Are you consistently approaching problems incorrectly somehow? Look for those kinds of things, identify them, and work on improving on them for the next exam. Go to office hours if you need any help, or even just for advice on how to improve for the next exam.
Also, just so you know:
Stop doing this. For one, that’s plagiarism and even if you don’t care about being copied, you’ll get in trouble for allowing people to copy if your professor ever finds out about this. At my school, something like this would be grounds for failing the class or possibly getting dismissed from the school depending on the severity and how much you’ve done it. I’m guessing your school has similar polices about academic dishonesty in place. And even if your professor does allow this (I doubt it, but I don’t know the exact situation), you’re not helping your friends at all by letting them copy your work. Help them as much as you want/need to, but let them get to the answers on their own and they’ll be better off in the long run. Copying you doesn’t teach them anything about how you got the answers you did.
I agree with @PhantomVirgo, do not do this. It’s fine to ask or receive help on how to code a certain method, etc. but do not let others copy your code. Plagiarism detecting is very easy, especially if the code is submitted online (e.g. course website, repository).
From my experience, a lot of classes I’ve taken at MIT will post practice exams, in which the actual exam is usually similar in content. Does your class do this? Have you done any practice exams? If not, I highly suggest doing practice quiz problems/exams.
Visit with the professor during his/her office hours, share that you really want to do better on the next exam, and ask for his/her advice on how to accomplish this. Getting used to college work is a steep learning curve, the pace is faster and there are far fewer things that you get graded on for most classes. Don’t expect to maintain the same level of grades that you did in high school across your courses. Also, if your professor grades on a curve, that 70 may be higher than you think.
I’m replying to this thread because my daughter had similar grade on one of the weeder CS course in her sophomore year. Her confidence was shaken, she had grade lower than the average. She learned to study ahead on the final instead of just waiting for the last day like she used to do, she got in the habit to check her exams before she turned them in. Fast forward she did get better grade and her GPA is high enough that she can even apply for a PhD program at some top schools. So I say to regroup and don’t loose the confidence.
I got a 70 on my first CS midterm, and on many more exams after that. However, my projects have usually come back with much higher grades (90+), and the projects are more reflective of your abilities than the exams are. The best way to prepare is by doing any previous practice exams that were released. Teachers tend to not vary up the problems from semester to semester. If it’s a lower level class, sometimes looking at exams from other schools on similar material might help. (Data structures material is everywhere)
And treat the coding questions like homework projects but in a smaller time frame. If you remove the testing scenario from your brain, it’ll help you feel better. If they ask you to code a linked list, how would you attack that on the homework? Use the same logic on the test.