There are two in-person, pencil-and-paper examinations planned for Fall 2026.
Each examination will be completed in person. Students with approved SSD accommodations may elect to take each examination via the Testing Accommodation Center.
A distinct examination may be created for each student. This may involve not only usual techniques, such as selecting a subset of questions or answers from a larger pool, but also software-specific approaches. For example, for problems on the examination involving the analysis or manipulation of a program (e.g., "Create a test suite for this Python program that maximizes branch coverage ..."), a different random program may be constructed for each student.
We may also employ similarity-checking software (e.g., Turnitin) for essay questions. Students who are worried about false positives may want to spend additional time ensuring that their submitted prose reflects their own ideas in their own voice.
The examinations will be no computer, no AI, but yes one page (= two sides) of notes. You can put anything you like in the notes (including small printings of selected slides or snippets of the readings).
The exam dates are:
We have reserved room for double the course capacity so that there can be an empty seat next to all (or almost all) students. There will be assigned seating. Assigned seating details will be communicated at the start of the exam (but will likely involve diving students by room in advance, and then placing notecards with your uniqnames on each desk). The exam rooms are:
The dates for the examination are posted well in advance. For reasons of academic integrity, we must be very strict about evidence for students who miss the exam. Students who miss an exam for medical reasons or approved scheduling conflicts are expected to take it the next day or the day after. If there is a concern that you might miss the exam for other reasons, you should arrange to take it in advance rather than late.
If you tell us less than one week in advance that you have a conflict (such as an exam in another course), we may not be able to accommodate you.
If you are unable to complete and submit the coursework in time due to illness or extenuating circumstances, other administrative measures (such as receiving an Incomplete in the course and completing the work in a later semester) may be appropriate.
All topics in the course can be represented on the exam. This includes the lecture material and slides, the required reading, the homework assignments and their materials and reading, guest lectures, and so on.
Any lecture before the day of the exam is fair game. So if the exam is scheduled for Day X, any lecture on Day X-1 or earlier could appear on the exam. The second exam is cumulative (i.e., can include material also on the first exam).
Exception: The "Trivia" and "Psychology" slides with colored (blue) borders and the Optional Reading are not part of the exam, but may be part of extra credit questions.
General philosophy:
Previous semesters of EECS 481 have featured many different exam structures and formats, including:
This means that the prior exams for this class are not always indicative of the exam for this semester, especially in terms of format.
Note also that in previous semesters the material was often covered in a different order. It is often very tempting for students to read the previous exams and then worry: "Oh my, this previous exam is very long and has strange rule X and covers topic Y that I've never heard of. Will my exam be like that?" No, it will not. The previous exams are provided as a courtesy and as a source for practice: they are not strict guidelines.
When asking questions on the forum about previous exams, we strongly recommend that you include a screenshot of the question, rather than just saying "Q3 of F24". Including a screenshot helps makes sure that the answer will have enough context to help other students as well. If you post an question about a prior exam and you include a screenshot, we will answer it faster.
When asking questions about the current exam, you must make your post private and visible only to the course staff.
Note that provided answer keys need not be exhaustive: they often list "one possible answer" rather than "all possible answers".
The previous exams below are everything we have. We know that some of them only have blank versions or only have answer key versions or are cut off slightly. We are sorry: this is all we have.
The exams below are everything we have. We know that some of them only have blanks or are cut off. We know some student would love additional detail. Unfortunately, the material below is all we have.
The exams below are everything we have. We know that some of them only have blanks or are cut off. We know some student would love additional detail. Unfortunately, the material below is all we have.
See above for which semesters are the most indicative. The exams below are everything we have. We know that some of them only have blanks or are cut off. We know some student would love additional detail. Unfortunately, the material below is all we have.
"Producing items by means as simple as saying, writing, or typing them can yield substantial memory improvements relative to silent reading. We review the research on this production effect and outline some important extensions and boundary conditions. We also evaluate the evidence that production enhances the distinctiveness of items in memory during encoding, thereby facilitating their later retrieval. There are issues to resolve and areas to explore, but production offers a practical means of enhancing some forms of long-term, explicit memory."
Colin M. MacLeod and Glen E. Bodner. The Production Effect in Memory. Memory, Vol 26, Issue 4, 2017.