Exam 1 on October 16th
Dear Students,
Exam 1 will be held on Thursday, October 15th, 2025:
- Time: 5:15 PM – 6:45 PM (regular class time)
- Location: Towne 217, the Forman Active Learning Classroom (regular classroom)
The format of the exam will be a pen-and-paper exam, with an optional cheatsheet (see below for details). There will be a PrairieLearn component released after the exam, which is optional and worth 25% of the overall grade, to be completed on your own time by Saturday, October 18th, 2025.
Review SessionPlease read on, the lecture on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, originally scheduled to be the midterm 1, will be dedicated to reviewing the material covered in the first few weeks of the course.
The exam will cover the following topics:
- Sets
- Relations
- Functions
- Counting
To help you prepare for the exam, the following resources are available:
- Sample Exam (Fall 2023 Exam 1)
- ⚠️ Please note solutions for this sample exam will not be provided, however you can request the TAs cover specific questions in recitation on Friday, October 11th, for the review session.
- Concepts Checklist
- Confidence Check 1 on PrairieLearn
The lecture on Tuesday, October 12th, 2025, will be dedicated to reviewing the material covered in the first few weeks of the course.
We will provide all necessary formulas at the back of the exam, as memorization is not the focus.
You should be able to complete the exam without bringing anything.
However, you are also allowed to bring a cheat sheet, following these rules:
- Format: Single sheet of paper, both sides, handwritten or printed, any font size.
- Exception: You may use the Amazon reference sheet I introduced, but if you do, you cannot bring an additional cheat sheet.
Bonus OpportunityYou can obtain 1-point of bonus on your exam by doing one of the following:
- IF YOU DO MAKE A CHEATSHEET: Submit a scanned copy of your cheat sheet for a 1-point bonus.
- If n students collaborate on a cheat sheet, each student will receive 1 ⁄ n points.
- Submission: On Gradescope (the link may not be currently active, but it will be by the time of the exam).
- IF YOU DON’T MAKE A CHEATSHEET: On the day of the exam, when the instructor walks around with a sign-up sheet indicate you are not using a cheatsheet.
- Bonus Opportunity:
In the evening after the written exam, we will release optional PrairieLearn questions worth 25% of the overall grade. This component is optional, and your final exam grade will be calculated as follows:
- Final Exam Grade = max(written exam grade, (75% × written exam grade) + (25% × PrairieLearn grade))
- Deadline: The PrairieLearn questions will be due by Saturday, October 18st, 2025, at 11:59 PM (please note this is intentionally before the HW4 deadline).
Rescheduling ExamIf you have a conflict or are unable to attend the exam due to illness or other reasons, please let us know as soon as possible by submitting this form. Provide as much availability as possible, and we will work with you to arrange an alternative.
No Need to Simplify FormulasYou do not need to simplify your answers during the exam. It’s acceptable to leave expressions unsimplified (e.g., you don’t need to compute “2 + 2”).
- Arrival: As much as possible, please arrive by 5:05 PM to get settled before the exam begins.
- No Leaving Early: To ensure everybody can take the exam in a quiet environment, we ask that you remain in the room until the end of the exam. If you finish early, you can use the remaining time to review your answers.
- Anonymity: Do not write your name anywhere on the exam. Instead, please write your (numerical) Penn ID on the front page where requested. We will grade exams anonymously to ensure fairness.
- Electronic Devices: Set cell phones to “Do Not Disturb” mode. Calculators are not permitted.
- Answer Space: Write your answers within the designated spaces. We will not check the back of any pages.
- Scratch Paper: A blank sheet is provided at the end of the exam for rough work. You may also use the back of any sheet if needed.
- Time Management: Some questions may be more challenging. Do not spend too much time on any single question.
- In the CIT 5920 exams, the easier questions are worth many more points than the harder questions.
- Particularly difficult questions will be identified as such (though of course it is always possible we misjudge perceived difficulty).
- Explanations: Unless specified “No explanation needed,” please provide a brief rationale for your answers.
- Practice: Focus on practicing problems related to the exam topics. Use the PrairieLearn exercises to ensure you are comfortable with the material.
- Textbook Recommendation: For additional practice, consider “A Brisk Walk Through Discrete Math” by Stephen Davies (or check out our other textbooks). Relevant chapters include:
- Sets and Functions
- Counting
- Probability (for the bonus question)
- Extra Practice:
- Attend the review recitation on Tuesday, October 14th 2025.
- Review examples from the lecture, and copy-paste the lectures in ChatGPT 5 Thinking or Claude Sonnet 4.5 Thinking or Claude Opus 4.1 Thinking and above to generate more examples.
- Practice with the PrairieLearn questions for HW1, HW2, and HW3.
- Review the Slido polls from the lectures.
- Attempt the sample exam (see Exam 1 from Fall 2023 in the Resources above) under timed conditions.
- Revisit homework assignments, comparing your work to the solutions and class examples.
- Focus on areas where you lost points to understand and correct mistakes.
Please do not attempt to cheat on this exam: Remember that the main goal of this class is to acquire prerequisite knowledge for future courses. This exam is one of the first checkpoints to see if you are in good progress, and it would be a bad missed opportunity to cheat in any way.
There will be many opportunities to obtain an excellent grade despite a catastrophic performance on this exam, but it is important to diagnose your difficulties early so we still have time to help you.
Finally, please do not discuss the exam, keep the exam subject or share it with anybody after the exam, until the solutions are released to everybody.
Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you prepare. You can reach us on the class forum or attend our office hours posted on the schedule page. We are here to support you.
Remember, consistent practice leads to success. The exam is not a measure of your worth, but just a checkpoint to see if you are on track with the material.
Good luck with your studying, and we wish you success on the exam!
Warm wishes,
Prof. Lumbroso.