Introduction to Simulation - Exam Questions

This is a list of questions that I have used in previous years in oral exams for this simulation course. Please note that the list will be updated during the winter term and that questions differ in style between oral and written exams.

Important disclaimer:
This list is intended only as a guideline for students. Questions may be added, modified or deleted at any time.
No guarantee is made that any question used in the examination can be found in this list!

Wichtiger Hinweis:
Diese Liste dient nur zur Orientierung für Studenten. Fragen können jederzeit hinzugefügt, geändert oder ergänzt werden.
Es wird keinerlei Garantie dafür gegeben, dass irgendeine Frage in der Prüfung in dieser Liste zu finden ist!

Ordinary Differential Equations

How are ODEs integrated numerically?
What is the idea behind step size control?
What is the order of an integration method?
Derive Euler's integration method
What is stability?
What is stiffness?
What is an Initial Value Problem? Give an example.
Give examples of ODEs with the following behaviour:
- tending towards a steady-state
- chaotic behaviour
- periodic behaviour

Random number generation

How are random numbers generated?
What properties should such a generator have?
What properties should random numbers have?
How can these properties be tested?
How can a longer period be obtained?
How can random numbers with any distribution be generated?

Random Variables

How can random variables be described?
What are the main properties of pdfs and cdfs?
Describe some common distributions and examples of their use
Sketch Normal distributions with large and small variances
Sketch Weibull distributions with b<1, b=1, b>1
What is the unique property of the exponential distribution?

Data Analysis

Describe the phases of data analysis
What is the Q-Q plot?
How is a Q-Q plot made?
What exactly does a Q-Q plot reveal?
Give examples of obtaining parameters of a guessed distribution
How can these parameters be tested for accuracy?
What is the chi-square test?
What is the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test?

Output Analysis

What is a confidence interval?
How is a confidence interval computed?
Under what conditions is a confidence interval valid?
What is the method of independent replications?
How can the width of a confidence interval be reduced?

Stochastic Petri Nets

What is a stochastic Petri net?
What are the components of a stochastic Petri net and how do they work?
Draw an SPN that describes a simple queue with one server
Draw an SPN that describes a simple queue with two servers
What are the rules governing the firing of a transition?

General

Explain your results for homework #n (oral exam only!)
Describe the stages of a simulation project
What is meant by the state of a system?
What is a state variable?
What is the mean and sample variance of a data set?
What is a null hypothesis?
What is verification?
What is validation?
Explain one method for validating a simulation model
What two principles are used to build a conceptual model?
What is abstraction?
What is idealisation?
What is the difference between statistical and practical significance?
Explain how a discrete-event simulator works
How would you compare two simulation models?
What is correlated sampling?
What is variance reduction?
What is an event list?
Explain the following terms:
- primary event
- secondary event
- attribute
- entity
- system
- activity
- delay
- state
- boundary