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Final Exam Guide, CPSC 303, Spring 2020

More content and corrections may be added to this page.

Some Concerns Answered Some of you have raised some concerns that I can address:
  • If you are not going to take the final---and take the 5% final exam option---there is nothing that you need to do, no forms to fill out. I may email you your exam, and you can just ignore it.
  • If canvas.ubc.ca or some other technology does not work during the exam, I will give you a final exam at a later date.
  • If you need a deferred exam, but you need this course in order to graduate soon, just let me know and we will find a reasonable date/time for your deferred exam.
  • It is not a problem if the name on your exam is not an exact match; as long as the student ID matches (exactly) there is no problem.
Final Exam Logistics I have sent out a poll via canvas.ubc.ca to enquire about your preferences and if you have any special needs during this difficult period in time; if you do, please let me know by Wednesday, April 15, at 11:59pm (assuming you wish to take the exam during this exam period).

The exam will be delivered to you in PDF form; the default is via email to your ugrad.cs.ubc.ca account. You must enter your answers to the final exam via canvas.ubc.ca.

During the final exam you can ask me for clarification regarding exam questions by sending me a message through canvas.ubc.ca.

Every student's exam will be unique; please make sure that the one delivered to you has your correct student ID number on it.

The default time to take the final exam is the scheduled time, Thursday, April 16, 7-9:30pm (i.e., 19h00-21h30) Pacific (Vancouver) Time. Via canvas.ubc.ca, I am offering the option to take the final exam on Sunday, April 19, at 7-9:30am (i.e., 7h00-9h30) Pacific (Vancouver) Time. Conditions (e.g., the start and end time of your exam) will be different if you have registered with Access and Diversity.
Examinable Material (Course Coverage)
  1. Textbook by Ascher and Greif: Chapter 10: all. Chapter 11: Sections 1-3. We have used material before Chapter 10 as needed, including material regarding roundoff errors, p-norms, matrix p-norms, and matrix p-condition numbers.
    In the abbreviated version of this course after March 13, we only studied the Heat Equation (in Homeworks 7 and 8), briefly mentioned in Chapter 16, and which draws on a few formulas in Chapter 14. We entirely omitted ODE's.
  2. The handouts:
    1. CPSC 303: Recurrence Relations and Finite Precision (omit Section 7).
    2. CPSC 303: What the Condition Number Does and Does Not Tell Us (the entire article).
    3. CPSC 303: Normal and Subnormal Numbers in Double Precision (the entire article).
    4. CPSC 303: Remarks on Divided Differences (omit Section 1.1).
    5. CPSC 303: Energy in Cubic Splines, Power Series as Algorithms, and the Initial Value Problem (omit Sections 5,6); on April 13 I modified the notation to use x_i's instead of t_i's to follow the notation in Section 11.3 of the textbook [A&G].
  3. The homework AND SOLUTIONS has some new material, especially Homework 7 and 8; from Homework 8 we omit Sections 7-9. Homework 1; solutions. Homework 2; solutions. Homework 3; solutions. Homework 4; solutions. Homework 5; solutions. Homework 6; solutions. Homework 7; solutions. Homework 8; solutions.
Practice Problems for Material Past the Midterm Here are some practice problems for the final exam with some brief solutions [both last modified April 15, 3:18pm, typos on 1(l)-(n)]; these problems are meant to be representative, not exhaustive; their focus is the material covered after the midterm. These problems begin with a review about some important formulas relating to the material after March 13.
Materials from the Midterm Here are solutions to the midterm. The following midterm practice sets were given: Set 1 and brief solutions to some problems; Set 2 and brief solutions to some problems; Set 3; brief solutions to some problems;

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