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Exam Preparation, Exams, Grading
Each course at ETH works slightly differently in this regard. Some courses offer a grade bonus for completing assignments during the semester, while others don't. Others still have parts of the grade determined by project work or similar, while there is one course in particular that has exam-like optional quizzes twice in the semester, which can be 10% of your final grade, each, if they improve your grade.
Bonus
During the semester, you hand in assignments, solve quizzes or do coding tasks to get a score. The graded assignments are a subset of the weekly (or bi-weekly) assignments in the course (typically a strict subset). For those assignments it is important that you absolutely do NOT collaborate with other people, as this is viewed the same as cheating at exams by ETH, of course unless explicitly stated otherwise, as it should be the case in Algorithms and Data structures. Giving someone a hint though could possibly be considered acceptable.
Grade bonuses typically are either up to 0.25 or 0.5 grades, often linearly interpolated between 0 and the maximum, depending on the achieved score during semester. All first semester courses work this way.
I highly recommend that you do these assignments not just for the bonus, but to get feedback from your TA on your solutions. It also forces you to do the exercises, which helps you prepare for the exams.
Exam Preparation
Studying for the exams can be a daunting task, but it is not that bad, if you plan properly. The most important tip I can give you here is to also factor in a day off each week, because you will likely not be able to keep going at eight or more hours a day, seven days a week for too long. Thus, factor in a slower day, or completely ETH-free day during the Lernphase.
It is thus important that during the semester you really try to solve the exercises on your own, completely without the help of AI. As tempting as it may seem to use AI for the bonus, don't. Not only won't you learn much from it, it's also illegal. Even using it for sanity checks is not strictly okay and should thus be avoided.
Using AI during the Lernphase to get different explanations for concepts on the contrary may be a better idea, but make sure to always double check.
Also see the page on AI here.
Summaries, Cheat Sheets
Old Exams
Exams
ETH exams typically take place on Hönggerberg (in the HIL building) and in the ONA building in Oerlikon. Make sure to arrive especially early for the first exams in each of these locations to account for having to search for the rooms, or trains or buses not running for some reason. While it is possible to get into an exam after it has already started, this won't help your cause and if somebody has already left, you won't be let in anymore, so being there at least one train rotation earlier is a good idea.
Make sure to bring some food (that doesn't make much sound!), water and enough pens to the exams and don't forget your LEGI and Cheat Sheets, where you are allowed to bring them.
::: details Note on the HIL building HIL can be a bit confusing. The HIL F41 and G41 rooms are best accessed through the main entrance, which is the many doors to the right when walking from the bus stop into the atrium of HIL. :::