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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
School of Information Sciences
INFSCI 2710 - Database Management
(Spring 2000, CRN 20727)
Notes about Midterm Exam
- The midterm exam will be next week, February 23.
- If you submit your solution to Homework 4 and 5 today
(as you should),
you will get it back before the midterm exam.
- I will answer questions before the exam
for approximately 30-45 min.
- So we will start about 6:30-6:45.
- You will have two hours to finish the exam.
- Please bring a picture ID (e.g. Pitt ID) with you.
I might check it for a few randomly selected students.
- Please try to sit not immediately next to your friends.
It is too tempting and dangerous.
It is important that I and Siripun cannot get the impression
that you tried to cheat.
- Space for the solutions will be provided on the exam.
- If you don't understand the exercise,
you can ask me during the exam.
- Exercises might be, e.g., of the following types:
- Design an Entity-Relationship-Schema for a given application
(similar to Homework 1-3).
- Given an ER-diagram, find errors.
- Compare two given ER-diagrams.
Are they equivalent with respect to their information content?
Is one better?
- Write queries in relational algebra and SQL (as Homework 4 and 5).
SQL queries will be very simple
(corresponding to the material covered in Part 2 of the handouts).
- Given queries in relational algebra or SQL,
find errors or test for equivalence.
- Given queries in relational algebra or SQL,
explain in natural language what it means.
- Multiple-Choice questions about keys, foreign keys,
and other constraints.
Possibly also about advantages/functions of database systems,
schema design phases,
the ER-model, and the relational model.
- The translation from the ER-model into the relational model
will only be subject of the final exam.
However,
understanding it might help you with other exercises in the midterm exam.
Stefan Brass
(sbrass@sis.pitt.edu),
February 16, 2000
Original URL:
http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~sbrass/db00_2/midnotes.html
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