This unit is worth 20 credit points, which is 1/6 of your first year. Your first year does not count towards your degree classification, but you do need to pass it to progress to 2nd year.
You get awarded credit for this unit, which you need to progress to 2nd year, if you get both:
This unit will be assessed by a single 2-hour exam held in an exam hall in the January 2024 assessment period. You must be in Bristol for this entire period, and your exact exam date and time will be published in your exam timetable closer to the date.
The exam will use a format that I call “rapidmark” in which you write your answers in pencil in boxes on a pre-printed answer sheet. Question formats could include, among others:
Rapidmark means that to mark your exam, I will scan all answer sheets, code up some image recognition to automatically mark most of your exam (for example, detect whether you put a cross in the “true” or “false” box for one question), then mark the remaining question(s) by hand. I will also visually check every single answer sheet myself, so you do not need to be worried about mistakes in the image recognition.
You must strictly observe any instructions given in the individual exam questions, such as “make exactly one cross for this question”; not doing so is immedately 0 marks for the whole question.
This is not only much quicker to mark than a traditional exam, but it is also more objective and fairer in some respects, and it gives me detailed statistics to see how well students did on each topic at no extra cost.
There will not be questions where you are asked to write full English sentences or proofs, or to “show your workings”. Indeed there is no way to get any partial marks for workings: your answer to a question is either correct, or incorrect.
You must bring a pencil and an eraser (not a pen) for the anwer sheet. You may use further, empty sheets of paper for calculations, but these will not be marked.
You may bring a non-programmable calculator that meets university regulations to the exam. The exact rules are set by the faculty (you will get an e-mail about this at some point), but a Casio FX-83GT/CW is the university’s recommended model, and definitely allowed for exams.
You may bring one A4 sheet, double-sided, of original handwritten notes to the exam. You may not bring any print-outs, photocopies, books, or electronic devices.
You may bring a clear plastic pencil case with pencils, erasers, sharpeners etc.
You may bring a clear plastic bottle of water with no labels or other decorations to the exam.
You must bring your student ID card to the exam and place it on your table for the invigilators to check.