Midterm Logistics

The midterm is Monday, July 13, 4pm-6pm PT. Lectures 1-10 (up to July 7), discussions 1-5 (up to Cryptography III), homeworks 1-3, and project 1 are in scope for the midterm.

If you cannot take the exam at the scheduled time, please fill out this conflict form by Thursday, July 9 at the latest.

The exam will be proctored over Zoom. If you do not feel comfortable with video proctoring or don’t have the equipment for video proctoring, please make a private Piazza post by Thursday, July 9 so we can discuss alternatives (probably a short verbal assessment after the exam).

Before the exam:

Complete homework 3 to be familiar with the exam format.
Print out the midterm answer sheet midterm answer sheet. If you do not have a printer access, please write and clearly label your answers on a blank sheet of paper.
Prepare any cheat sheets. You can have as many handwritten (on paper) cheat sheets as you want.
Download Zoom on your smartphone and experiment with a video recording setup (see below).
Make sure you’ve received an email with a Zoom meeting link and an encrypted PDF of the exam questions. (This will probably be sent out Sunday evening.)

On the day of the exam:

Position your smartphone so that we can clearly see your answer sheet and your computer/tablet screen. You can see examples of setups from course staff here.
At the exam start time, we will email you the password to decrypt the PDF. Make sure to start your video feed before the exam starts.

During the exam:

Only the exam PDF and the clarifications page should be on your computer screen.
You should not be typing during the exam, except to ask for clarifications.
We will have a form where you can ask clarification questions. We will not answer clarification questions directly - if your question is answered, it will be displayed on the clarifications page. Please check the clarifications page periodically during the exam.

After the exam:

Use your smartphone to take a picture of your answer sheet, and upload it to Gradescope no later than 15 minutes after the end of the exam.
Please do not discuss the exam with anyone until all alternate exams have finished.

Frequently Asked Questions:

If you need to use the bathroom: leave the video feed on, showing your answer sheet and your computer/tablet screen, while you’re away.
If your Internet quality is poor, you can choose to upload a recording instead of using Zoom. Please make a private post on Piazza if you’d like to upload a recording.
Don’t worry if your video feed disconnects briefly during the exam.
If you cannot upload your answer sheet to Gradescope in time, you can email a picture of the answer sheet to cs161-staff@berkeley.edu.
If you encounter significant technical problems, don’t worry about video proctoring and focus on finishing the exam. We may ask you to take a short verbal exam afterwards.