Midterm 1 Analysis

In this comparison exercise you will compare your code with that of the professors' (not with each others' as you do in lab analysis). Sometimes students leave a programming assignment with questions such as:

• What should I have done to get the program to work?
• Do I have good style? What should the style of this program really look like?
• I got it to work, but did I accomplish it in a good way? How might I have improved my program?

Questions to these answers are crucial to help you improve as a programmer. This assignment is meant to help answer these types of questions. We have made both the specs and our solutions for last week's exam visible in the zyBooks exam chapter. You will compare your solution with ours for each question on the midterm.

This is an opportunity to compare your code with a good version of the code. This comparison exercise will help you to see areas where your coding is good and areas where you can improve. There is more than one good approach to solve problems. Your task is to do a side by side comparison of your code submitted for the exam and our solution code (which you can see by clicking on view solution in zyBooks). 

1) Compare the logical programming approach you took to the problem with the approach taken by the solution code. Where were your mistakes made if you had problems getting a correct solution? Analyze the difference in your approach and the supplied approach. Discuss the parts of your logical approach which were as good (or better) than the supplied example, and particularly discuss areas where you could have improved your approach. If you wish, you may edit your code and submit as many times in zyBooks as you want to figure out where you went wrong and try to get your solution correct. We will not grade any of these submissions. They are just for your practice at this point.

2) Compare the style of your code with the solution supplied and point out areas where you did a good job of following the style guide, and particularly discuss areas where your style could be improved. 

If you take this exercise seriously it will help you improve your coding and will help you in your assignments and exams going forward. You may use whatever format you please for your written analysis. You will receive full points if you do a thorough analysis and comparison of both style and logical approach between the versions. If you give less effort in your analysis then you will receive fewer points. Even if your exam code was incomplete, point out all the differences you can, including style used in the example which you have not been doing in general on your recent labs. Also, discuss what was causing you to struggle and explain how seeing the correct code helps you understand what was holding you back. Even having a chance to look over the question and solution to a problem you didn't answer at all is still a good learning experience; so comment enough on the problem to demonstrate that you have tried to do that learning. You will receive points based on your effort and discussion.