Exercises for Experience

The best way to really get to know the required material for this class is by using it. Not just doing pencil and paper exercises, but designing and writing programs, putting them in the computer, and making them work.

The ugly pink/purple book contains a lot of exercises, most of which are just what is needed for this kind of practice. Each chapter has 40 to 60 exercises at the back; they start with really easy ones that don't require real programming, and work up towards big ones that would make major homework assignments.

I recommend picking whatever chapter(s) cover the subject(s) that you are not 100% confident with, and starting to work through the exercises. To start with, they won't take long, but once you get to the time-consuming ones, don't force yourself to do them all in order. Pick a few to do really properly. If you can write correct programs, you can almost certainly correctly answer exam questions about programming.

These are my recommendations: If you become confident with these exercises, you will be well prepared for the examinations.

It would be a good idea to look at a random selection of the exercises even for the chapters you are confident with, just to make sure there is nothing you've missed out on.