CISC 101-11 Winter 2003 Final Exam Review

Studying

I suggest studying mainly from class notes. Some topics were covered only briefly in class or not written on the board, which may be important. For those topics, refer to the text.

Questions

The questions on the final exam will not be similar to the midterm exam questions. They will primarily be understanding-oriented rather than fact-oriented. There will be very few (if any) multiple choice questions. Rather, there will be:

· Fill in the blank questions- may ask you to identify components given their properties, state the solution to a given problem, identify a piece of software, etc.
There will be an additional section of the exam listing terms that may be answers to the fill in questions.

· Short answer

o One sentence questions- these may ask you to either describe something briefly or give an example of something

o One paragraph or less questions- these will may you to explain how something works, compare and contrast two things, list characteristics of something, etc.

· Other type
I don’t know how to best describe this category. There may be matching questions, there may be questions where you are asked to put things in a specified order, and there may be labeling questions.

The question types and quantities will be chosen so that you have enough time to complete the exam.

Material

· Overview of Computers (1,2)
Study the categories of computers.

· Input (3-4)
Nothing

· Output (5-6)
Know how an image is displayed on a monitor.
Know the difference between a CRT and an LCD
Know the three major kinds of printers and the general way they work

· Number Systems
Be able to convert between binary, hexadecimal, and decimal. Your conversion chart and a calculator are allowed.

· Processing Data (7,8)
Primary storage- Registers, cache, main memory
Review lesson 8 very briefly- know the major players and their roles in the industry

· Storing Information (9,10)
Secondary storage- hard drives, CD-ROM drives (you should understand other storage devices too but their specifics will not be asked)
Compression- notes

· Operating Systems and User Interfaces (11,12)
Purpose- Why do we have operating systems and what good are they?
User interface in Windows- Mostly terms
File and hardware management
Case studies (reviews of different operating systems)- you might want to skim the book for this

· Productivity Software (13-16)
For each piece: purpose, formatting, interface terms, any special features
Databases- also structure, usage

· Networks and Data Communications (17,18)
Why do we have networks and what are they used for?
Network types and topologies
Hardware
The new terms introduced in lesson 18 but not the different kinds of modems

· Internet and Online Resources (19,20)
History and Foundations of the Internet
How the Internet works (TCP/IP, IP address, DNS, etc)
How does the World Wide Web work?
Email concepts
What are newsgroups, FTP, telnet, IRC?
How to connect to the Internet
Business Internet-related concepts

· Software Development (27,28)
Components of a computer program
Programming language and compiler concepts- algorithms, instructions, how it’s a language, flow chart description, etc
Programming languages- be able to recognize some
Software Development Life Cycle