Tue, 12 Nov 2013, 15:26

My students,

I have received today emails from three of my TAs with requests from students
to photocopy the page in their book where they have heavily marked up the 
data path diagram and/or the state machine and use that as one of the cheat 
sheets.  Here is the email from one of my TAs. 

 
> Hi Professor Patt,
>
> Some students have been asking if they can photocopy their data path
> diagram from their book and bring it as one of their cheat sheets.  I
> realize in the email you sent out you said it must be in your own
> handwriting.  However these students have written alot of notes on their
> data path explaining different signals etc. so they are wanted to bring in
> that as a sheet.  Will we allow this since they are given the data path
> anyways?  Or no since its not "in their own handwriting".  They of course
> could hand redraw the whole data path with their notes but thats just
> tedious.  Let me know your thoughts.
>
> Thanks,
> <<name withheld to protect the TA>>


Answer: I agree completely!  I certainly do not want you going through the
tedious exercise of copying the whole thing over.  And, I do not want you
to rip the page out of your book.  If the handwriting is yours, I think
photocopying the page from the book is the right answer, and in fact, 
I strongly encourage you to do it.

By the way, heavily marking up figures in the book is a big win as far as
producing a reference book that will be more valuable to you years from now.  
In fact, I have seen again and again the personal libraries of MIT graduates 
that include all the books they used as undergraduates, all heavily marked 
up with notes in the margins, etc. 

Good luck on the midterm tomorrow.  Please get a good night's sleep tonight.
Being wide awake is usually a necessary condition for doing well on my exams.

Yale Patt