Sample Mid-term Exam Questions

Before you read this, please re-read the Exam Study Orientation. It goes much more in detail about what is expected.

Also, please make sure to get familiar with the online proctoring platform Examity (we walk the talk of digitalization!). Start here: About Examity Proctoring

Here are some example questions. These will not be repeated on the exam in any form (...so no need to memorize them...), but simply aim at giving you an idea about the kinds of questions you can expect.

 

Application of learned concept Questions:

1) Digital communication is recorded, monitored and analyzed by secret services, national security agencies, and private enterprises as part of their surveillance practices. Therefore, people claim that the Internet inevitably leads to total control. This attitude is an example of:

A) technological determinism
B) social constructivism

 

2) The logarithm is important when working with exponential dynamics. What is the relation between both?

A) the logarithm makes a curved tendency straight
B) exponential growth describes a continuous doubling process, while the logarithm describes jumps in disruptive innovations  
C) the logarithm tracks the number that appears in an exponent of another number
D) exponential growth comes from combinatorics, while logarithmic growth comes from a doubling process

 

3) The first computing device that ever existed was enabled by the monumental invention of the transistor and microprocessor in the 1970s, which also sets the starting point of the “Information Age”.

A) True
B) False

By far the largest number of questions will be of the kind "Application of learned concept", so make sure to go over our slides and check if you understand the underlying concepts. If there are some holes in your understanding (what is to be expected), you can find more advice here: Exam Study Orientation. There you can find also some tips on how you could go about answering more difficult multiple-choice questions.

 

Note-taking / attention Questions:

4) In one case study in class, we reviewed the role of pony express in the Presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The idea behind this case study was the following:

A) Workers in the communication sector have always played an important role in shaping labor rights, including pony express riders and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
B) Abraham Lincoln was not aware of the increasing speed of communication, which almost cost him his election
C) It took over a week to communicate the election result from the East coast to the West coast
D) Every communication revolution is driven by audacious innovators, be it pony express riders, or Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

 

If you have seen lectures from week 1, and were halfway awake, you will still remember the answers. These questions are not difficult, but if you have not seen the lectures, they are pure guesswork. More than 10 % of the exam will consist of these kinds of questions, so if you have not watched lectures attentively, it will likely cost you an entire letter grade.

 

Reading / Assignment Questions:

The reading has a lot of details, and I am aware of this. Part of the task is to prepare you for your future job, where you will have to read way to much stuff to remember, but your boss still will want you to maintain the main points. Which ones are the 'main points'? ...that's something you will have to learn to discern... the reading questions can help, but they are not exclusive. This being said, there won't be questions about very peculiar particularities (I won't ask: "Which country had higher internet penetration in 2009: Burkina Faso or Zimbabwe?"), but there might be questions like (taken from week 3): 

5) Brian Arthur talks a lot about how technologies evolve by a process of "self-creation". What does he mean?

A) existing elements serve as building blocks for further elements
B) technologies armed with artificial intelligence can create themselves
C) human create technologies themselves, as technologies cannot come out of nowhere

 

Also see Frequently Asked Questions on Testing in the Course Syllabus (at the bottom).

Please try your best shot to answer the sample questions by yourself. Be sure to compare your answers with a fellow student, as there might be some surprises. For example, the answer to question 3 is B: do you know why?