General Information :
The exams will be based on the course book "DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS" by Raghu Ramakrishnan et al. 3rd ed., lectures in class, issues we discussed in class, and homeworks you have done.
REMINDER: Solutions to many of the problems of the book (all odd numbered exercises) are available on-line as part of the book information at "http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~dbbook". You are encouraged to study those. Solutions can also be directly found at : HERE.
Information Related to Final Examination:
Two problems, one on query optimization and the other on transaction management, are given below as examples of what we appear on your final exam.
** SAMPLE PROBLEM 1 for FINAL EXAM ** ( pdf file )
** SAMPLE PROBLEM 2 for FINAL EXAM ** ( pdf file )
Information Related to Midterm :
The midterm will be based on the material covered in the first 6 lectures of the course, inclusive the Functional Dependencies and Normalization Material (chapter 19). You are strongly encouraged to read the corresponding material in the textbook, to study the lecture overheads used in class, review the material discussed in class, and the homeworks. This should well prepare you for the exam.
To get a sense for what type of exams I typically give, you may want to look at the Sample Examination from a prior offering of the CS542 class:
SAMPLE MIDTERM EXAM ( pdf file ) ( ( postscript file )