Like previous self-assessment procedures, this collection of 41 multiple-choice and short-answer questions is designed to allow a reader to “appraise and develop his or her own knowledge” (p. 90). Also as with previous procedures, a reference is provided with each suggested response.

The topics it covers are data types and structures; control structures; names and data control; functional, logic, and object-oriented programming; and syntax and semantics. Many of the questions in the first three sections have a heavy Pascal accent, although a few involve concurrent processing methods and abstract data type implementation methods of other languages. Functional programming, logic programming, and object-oriented programming have four questions each. A small Backus-Naur form (BNF) grammar is used to test the reader’s understanding of the formal definition of syntax; there are also two questions on formal semantics.

Including the short-answer questions and allowing the possibility of more than one correct multiple-choice response has allowed high-caliber questions. The heavy emphasis on Pascal, while perhaps appropriate at the time the questions were originally written, seems somewhat out of place today. Such a question set written today might appropriately place more emphasis on object orientation and less on Pascal.