Test 2 Preparation, due on November 9

Which topics and ideas do you think are the most important out of those we have studied?

 I think that RSA is a huge part of this exam: using it, knowing how it works, knowing how to do it, its weaknesses and strengths, etc.

I also think that knowing the methods for factoring, determining primality, and cracking the posed discrete log problems will be important. 

What kinds of questions do you expect to see on the exam?

I expect that we will be decrypting RSA messages.
I bet we do a Chinese Remainder Theorem question. 
I think we'll test numbers to see if they are prime (and factor if they aren't).
I bet there will be a question about the birthday attack somehow, because it's fun.

What do you need to work on understanding better before the exam?

I need to memorize the rules of the Jacobi symbol manipulation. I'll need to remember how to find square roots Mod n. I need to review the ElGamal methods and how to do them, as well as the primality determination methods. I will also really need to spend some time trying to understand signing documents in RSA, because that's still pretty fuzzy for me.