2IC30 · assessment
Exam trainer
The same six questions come back every year. Train each one where it counts.
The six exam questions
Permitted aids: basic calculator + ARM/PP2 instruction summaries.
- Q1
Number systems, 2's-complement, condition codes
16 pts0/5 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Reading division remainders top-to-bottom instead of bottom-to-top.
- Grouping bits from the wrong end — group from the least-significant bit.
- Forgetting hex digits A–F represent 10–15.
- Q2
Boolean logic, Karnaugh maps, adders, NAND
15 pts0/5 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Confusing NAND/NOR (they are negations of AND/OR, not of each other).
- Writing XOR as OR — XOR is 0 when both inputs are 1.
- Mixing notations: a+b is OR, not arithmetic addition.
- Q3
Finite state machines / sequential circuits
18 pts0/7 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Confusing a level-sensitive latch (transparent while enabled) with an edge-triggered flip-flop (samples only at the edge).
- Forgetting the SR latch's forbidden state.
- Thinking the clock 'powers' the FF rather than timing the capture.
- Q4
Datapath / Register Transfer Language
16 pts0/5 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Sending two sources onto one bus in the same cycle.
- Confusing ΣA (address) with ΣR/ΣW (read/write data).
- Forgetting CC is updated by ALU operations.
- Q5
Assembly programming (PP2 / ARM)
19 pts0/4 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Getting push/pull SP direction backwards (grows downward).
- Leaving the stack unbalanced on return.
- Overwriting [SP] before decrementing it.
- Q6
Short theory (history, paging, cache, OS)
10 pts0/6 topics touched
Common pitfalls
- Forgetting the convention that expression results sit on the stack.
- Mismatching pos offsets when the stack grows during evaluation (pos+1).
- Confusing interpreter (runs directly) with compiler (translates).