Exam timetables.

[Duggeh]

So who got lucky and who didn't? This is my last set of exams and it's the worst timings I've ever had for sure.

Essays due 1st, 8th, 15th, exams 16th, 20th.

Ruh-roh.

[RandomMusings]

Last exams here 18th & 19th - coursework due first week of May, so should have some revision time at least.
Only downside i'd been offered a gig in London on the 18th, so obviously not doing that anymore...

[orudge]

18th and 19th too - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. I usually like to have at least a day between exams, but, eh, they're my last ones, least number of exams I've ever had in one sitting, too, so it'll be good to get them over and done with. As for coursework, project is due this Friday, then I have an essay due next Friday, and two practicals due on the 8th - a decent amount of time left for revision.

[munchingfoo]

I got really lucky. No exams. Exam Win.

[Hennessy]

Some people really dread exams. I quite like them compared with the tedious rolling array of coursework deadlines you have to put up with in my subjects.

[ChrisH]

If you're exams are bad write to the exams officer, I did an have one of mine moved provisionally.

It doesn't help my dissertation is on scheduling and coming up with better systems for allocating things like exams, it really shouldn't be hard to produce a fair allocation for all.

[munchingfoo]

If you're exams are bad write to the exams officer, I did an have one of mine moved provisionally.

It doesn't help my dissertation is on scheduling and coming up with better systems for allocating things like exams, it really shouldn't be hard to produce a fair allocation for all.

What subject do you study Chris? I don't think you have quite grasped how much of complex problem scheduling is. Bear in mind that it's very likely that there is no "solution" to this scheduling problem and as such it becomes an optimisation (minimising clashes) scheduling problem, which is much harder to solve.

[Power Metal Dom]

21st and 22nd, 3 hours each. Not bad. I prefer to have most of the month to revise.

[Jono]

Afternoon of the 20th; Morning of the 21st and Morning of the 22nd. Fun times!

[Craig]

16th, 20th and 26th. Best spread of exams I've had since I got here.

[Duggeh]

16th, 20th and 26th. Best spread of exams I've had since I got here.

One hates thou.

[Craig]

That's a fair call. I'd have hated me too.

[Jormungand]

2 on the same day, craptacular. Who thought it would be a good idea to have both philosophy exams on the same day? It's hardly a stretch to imagine that people might be doing both of them...

[ChrisH]

What subject do you study Chris? I don't think you have quite grasped how much of complex problem scheduling is. Bear in mind that it's very likely that there is no "solution" to this scheduling problem and as such it becomes an optimisation (minimising clashes) scheduling problem, which is much harder to solve.

Computer Science, natch.

Scheduling is just a giant set of permutations of exam venues, exams and days combined with a function that tells you just how good or bad one is. From the moaning I've heard anecdotally over the years it does appear that certain departments always end up with things like exams at the start or end, or consecutive days or whatever, implying that either there is a function used but it is uses different criteria from what students may like, or there isn't and any solution is considered acceptable.

Computers make things like scheduling stuff pretty simple, it may take days to crunch the numbers but given after week 2 the numbers on a course are fixed that gives 10+ weeks to come up with the exam timetable (well less for a provisional one).

I'd love to be told that they do use some complex system that works out everything really nicely, but somehow I doubt that.

[munchingfoo]

It doesn't take very many variables to be added to a problem in order for the problem to be unable to be solved in any reasonable amount of time.

At honours level, most students have a choice of modules therefore very few students at honours level can be grouped together as one variable. This gives us about 3000 variables to worry about before we've even decided who can cover which exam, which venue we can use, who has special circumstances, who drops out of course, who moves from one course to another, ...

You could perhaps model the problem looking at the subjects as variables, but then the constraints between the variables become quite complex and difficult to propogate over. We then consider that the constraints can be changed at a moments notice (since data can be changed) and the shit starts to hit the fan.

Whilst it's not impossible that there might be a good model out there for this problem, I have my suspicions that, like I said previously, it would be an optimisation problem, and would therefore have no perfect solution, only one which was less bad than any others. Even then, it might be infeasible to find the best solution in any reasonable amount of time, so you'd still have the occasional exam moans that we get now.

What project are you doing for your honours, and who's your supervisor?

[zipporah]

Dissertation due 15th, exam 21st, degree over. Looking forward to it.

[Guest]

Computers make things like scheduling stuff pretty simple, it may take days to crunch the numbers but given after week 2 the numbers on a course are fixed that gives 10+ weeks to come up with the exam timetable (well less for a provisional one).

I'd love to be told that they do use some complex system that works out everything really nicely, but somehow I doubt that.

The numbers on modules are far from fixed by the end of week 2, actually.

[Garnet]

I suppose i should be grateful to have a week in between exams, but i have one on the last day which means i have the joy of seeing everyone else finished and relaxing.