6.006  Introduction to Algorithms

Final exam advice

We were asked about final exam preparation and test taking strategy by some students, and figured we should express our thoughts to all students.

Preparing for the final: Make sure to go over older material (e.g., Quiz 1). That is, review recitations, lectures and problem set material. If you need to be choosy, go with recitation exercises and problem sets. There is a whole slew of practice exam material at http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.006 if you are looking for additional practice exams. Looking at recent terms (e.g., Fall 2019) is probably best. (We posted the Spring 20 final, and solutions will available Wednesday at 9pm.) We would recommend choosing particular problems to work on as opposed to trying to do the entire final in a 3 hour sitting, since exams this term have a different style (as you might have noticed) from prior terms. There is usually a better learning outcome associated with figuring out or making progress on a question, before looking at solutions, so don't time out too soon. Giving yourself a strict budget may cause you to not push through to a solution, which is the reason for the above recommendation.

Taking the final: On the final, do a quick read of the questions in <= 5 minutes and decide what questions you are most comfortable with. Make sure you are not out of time before you have done all the questions that seem "easier" to you. The order of the questions are roughly in coverage order, not order of difficulty. As in the quizzes, points assigned to a problem are a rough estimate of how many minutes we think it should take you to solve the problem, so don't spend 30 minutes on a 10 point question.

It is a long 3-hour exam so make sure you are fresh when you start. We tried to cover all the psets/lectures in the questions, though obviously the number of points for each topic is somewhat random and depends on whether the corresponding questions are T/F or short answer or long answer. There will be only T/F questions on lectures 21-23, if any, since we did not have a pset on that material.

Good luck!

-- 6.006 Course Staff

Announced on 08 December 2020  6:49  p.m. by Srini Devadas

6.006 endgame!

One more lecture, one more recitation and one more exam left to go!

The final exam will be run exactly like the quizzes. It can be taken anytime beginning 1.30p on Monday, 12/14 all the way to a Tuesday, 12/15, 10am start. If you are not taking the exam starting at 1.30p on Monday, you will need to request an alternative start time (and/or extended time) for the final exam on alg.

You get to evaluate us! Contrary to the Quiz 3 question, we were trying to maximize our student approval score this semester! Please fill out subject evaluations at https://registrar.mit.edu/classes-grades-evaluations/subject-evaluation/subject-evaluation-reports and help us improve 6.006 in future terms. Your written feedback on virtual teaching from delivery to tools to logistics will help all EECS classes during the Spring 2021 semester and will be especially relevant to virtual 6.006 and 6.046 next semester.

Good luck on the final exam. Feel free to reach out to the course staff if you have questions about course standing, preparation strategies, etc.

-- Srini, Julian, Silvio, Mauricio and the course TAs

Announced on 07 December 2020  2:37  p.m. by Srini Devadas

Quiz 3 logistics

We hope you are enjoying Thanksgiving break!

Quiz 3 will be on December 3, 7.30p-8.30p. Note that it is a 60 minute quiz. Please read this entire email carefully.

If you have class conflicts or time zone conflicts, please use https://alg.mit.edu/fall20/quiz_remote to ask for a different time or Extended Time. You will have to make a separate request for each exam -- any requests for earlier quizzes do NOT apply to Quiz 3.

The quiz will be run entirely off of Gradescope. Quiz rules and coverage can be found in the class information handout -- in short, all exams represent individual work and no collaboration is permitted.

The Spring 20 Quiz 3 has been added to the Materials page. Solutions will be available on Tuesday, 12/1. There will be a Quiz Review on Wednesday, December 2 in recitation. Please look at the new office hour schedule on alg; note that there will be no office hours on December 3.

You will be able to see Quiz 3 on Gradescope in 6.006 Exams at 7.30pm EST Thursday, December 3. Once you click Start Assignment, you will have 60 minutes to do the quiz (or longer if you have been approved for extended time by SDS), so please do not click Start Assignment until the time that you are ready to begin taking the quiz. There will be a countdown timer to the top right indicating how many full minutes you have left.

Please make sure to save your answers as soon as you are done with particular questions. Please make sure to submit your quiz before your allotted time expires. You can use the Resubmit button to the bottom right to resubmit your quiz multiple times before time expires.

Finally, we have two lectures remaining, on Tuesday 12/1 (parallel algorithms) and 12/8 (algorithmic puzzles and a preview of 6.046).

Good luck with the rest of 6.006!

Announced on 28 November 2020  12:26  p.m. by Srini Devadas

PS9 clarifications

In the RNA Splicing II problem in PS9, the importance values can be negative. (If the importance values are non-negative, then the problem degenerates to RNA Splicing I of PS8, and where's the fun in that??)

Also, we have updated test cases in Robotic Coin Collection II, so please re-download tests.py. If you have already passed the tests on the server, you don't need to do anything.

Announced on 16 November 2020  6:44  p.m. by Srini Devadas

One extra 2-day extension

Dear 6.006 students,

We are increasing the number of late problem sets that are not penalized from 2 to 3. The text in the Information handout now reads:

Late submissions will be accepted up until 48 hours after the due date, also at 6 p.m. Solutions will be posted shortly after the late submission window closes. We will not penalize your three highest scoring late submissions, but we will penalize any additional late submissions by 50%.
In exceptional circumstances, problem set deadlines may be individually extended without penalty at the emailed request of an Institute Dean.

Note that extensions are automatically applied at the end of the semester to maximize your problem set score.

PS8 is due November 13 at 6p, and PS9 is due November 20 at 6p. If one of your extensions (e.g., the additional extension just announced) is used for PS9, you will be able to submit PS9 before Tuesday, December 1, 6pm without penalty, given that Saturday 11/21 to Sunday 11/29 is Thanksgiving break. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't get started on PS9 soon after it is released! It will be a challenging problem set, but doable in a week. Note that we will not have office hours Friday 11/20 through Sunday 11/29, inclusive.

--6.006 Course Staff

Announced on 09 November 2020  5:30  p.m. by Srini Devadas