Exam 1 will be worth 150 points and will be held in class.  It will cover chapters 1, 2, and 3.1-3.3 of the book.  Anything in those chapters, covered in class or recitation, and the assignments are valid test material.

You can expect an even mix of three general categories of questions:

1. Conceptual: 
   
• These include true/false, multiple choice, completion, short answer, and even possibly essay questions.
• The point is to tap into your understanding of the material.
  
2. Reading code:
• For these, you will be given some java code to look at and will be asked questions about it. 
  
• For example, you may be asked what the output is, or perhaps what is wrong with it.
  
3. Writing code:
• These are the hardest questions on the exam because you have to write java code from scratch.  Basically, you're told what to do and then you have to do it!
• For example, you may be asked to declare some type of variable and initialize it all at once.  Or, asked to write a program that inputs an integer and prints out its square.  Things like that (for exam 1).

To prepare for this exam, you should do the following (at least):

• Re-read the chapters in the book.
• Re-read your notes and compare them to the notes available on the course web page to make sure you got everything.
• Review the projects and your solutions. 
  
• Make a vocabulary list and keep it handy as you study.  Many times students struggle with what words mean on the test and I can't help because it was something I felt they should know from class and/or the book.
• Practice, practice, practice.  Make sure you can follow a program and determine the output.  You will be asked to do this several times on the exam, and it is never easy the FIRST time, but it is every subsequent time.  Thus, get your rough tries out of the way.  Most of you will not take my advice here, so take advantage of that and be one of the few who aces the output oriented questions.  Just take programs from the book, make minor changes, see if you can (space-by-space) produce the output.
  
• Try to answer the questions at the end of each chapter.  Get stuck, unstick yourself, and keep going.  If you want to meet with the TA or me to go over your answers, come on in during our office hours.

Also, use your time wisely.  For example, you do not need to memorize the "public static void..." stuff because I promise there will be several complete java programs already on the exam from which you can look to remind yourself.  Focus on the concepts and applying those concepts to situations.  Try to remember where semi-colons go, but don't spend 75% of your time doing that. 

Good luck!