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Boiler sample exam for review

This was my second attempt at the boiler problem and I finished it in about 3 hours (I aimed for 3 since I didn't need time to understand the prompt on the 2nd attempt).

 

Would this pass? Any obvious deductions?

 

Also, I have a question about the exam for anyone who has taken it:

 

I'm struggling to feel prepared even though I have done each sample exam twice now. I'm getting very familiar with these 4 problems but I'm not getting practice developing a plan for new problems. Did you feel that the actual exam was different enough from the practice exams that it was like the first time that you were exposed to each practice exam? Or did the actual exam roughly follow the format of one of the sample exams?

 

Thanks for any feedback!

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@AmandaBacala wrote:

[...] Did you feel that the actual exam was different enough from the practice exams that it was like the first time that you were exposed to each practice exam? Or did the actual exam roughly follow the format of one of the sample exams?


I wrote the CLD exam this morning (online version, so please ask any questions about that experience) and with everything fresh in memory... this is my view on it:

 

It is very hard to say if the actual exam was harder compared to the example exams when it comes to complexity. Like you, and like everybody else I guess studying for the CLD, I've done the four example exams repeatedly 'til the point where it almost goes like a mantra (ATM-Sprinkler-Boiler-Car Wash-ATM-Sprinkler-Boiler-Car Wash) so yeah, I know them all by heart now which of course also makes it very hard to say anything about their complexity.

 

But still, doing the example exams I also learned what was common with them: an event driven state machine, a timer (sometimes being able to pause/resume it, sometimes just set/get/reset) and being able to process a text file (sometimes write to it, sometimes read, and sometimes write/read). So I learned these buildings blocks and found a common approach to all four example exams which I though would serve me well so I wouldn't need to focus on which tools to use but on the actual problem.

 

And then came the exam. Of course the time constraint and issues with my web camera added a lot to the stress factor. But it feels like the requirements specification was more complex compared to the example exams but, since there was stress added, I am not sure it actually was. Of course all the familiar building blocks were there but it feels like there was an extra step or two added to everything but from an objective point-of-view, it probably wasn't. Regardless, I am not satisfied with what I delivered.

 

Hope these ramblings help you somewhat in your wondering.

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Yes, that is helpful! Thank you for your response.

 

Good luck! If you think of it, I would love to know how you did once you get your results.

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About a month later results are now back and I did pass the exam! Smiley Very Happy It was far from a top score (I did not expect a top score so no surprise) but still a little margin to the cut off. A few thoughts:

 

Of course never ever slack off during the exam, but as a small comfort afterwards, you might pass the exam even if you don't manage to implement 100% of the requirements specification. The evaluation I received was very precise about all lacking functionality, and I lost a lot of points there, but I was sure to hand in something that works (broken arrow = fail I guess) and the functionality I did manage to implement was enough.

 

And of course, documentation is easy points. Add a comment to all vi documentations and be generous with sub diagram labels. And tip strings to the front panel objects (something I forgot).

 

Good luck and let the wires guide you!

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Congratulations!

 

Believe it or not, I actually got my results back in only 8 days. I passed as well 🙂 I guess they just went through a mass grading spree!

 

So I will answer my own question for future forum dwellers...

 

I thought the complexity was very consistent with the sample exams. There *were* concepts on my actual exam that were not covered by any of the sample exams, but nothing that wasn't covered in sample exams + CLD practice problems (the 17 shorter problems). So just make sure you practice *all* the material.

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