Homeworks | 20% (4x5%) |
Projects | 40% (10%, 10%, 20%) |
Midterm exams | 20% |
Final exam | 20% |
The course will be graded on a curve, with a mean of B (10% A, 15%
A-, 15% B+, 20% B, 15% B-, 15% C+, 10% C). A+ is reserved for the best
student (or perhaps two) in the class. The curve can shift up for an
excellent class, as indicated by strong classroom interaction and
outstanding project implementations. Graduate students and reentry
students are not included in establishing the curve,
but they will receive grades based on where they would
fall on the curve. This is EECS Department policy.
Any requests for grade changes or regrading must be made within one week of when the work was returned. To ask for a regrade, attach to your work a page that specifies:
The TAs have been instructed to grade in part on design and implementation style, and to be increasingly strict about this as the semester proceeds. In other words, it is not enough to get a working solution; you must implement the solution in a clean way that would simplify making further enhancements. Several employers in the area have said that many of our graduates don't know how to program well -- it will really benefit you in the long run to work on your software engineering skills.
It's OK to ask someone about the concepts, algorithms, or general approaches needed to do the homework and project assignments. We encourage you to do so; both giving and taking advice helps you to learn. However, what you turn in must be your own; copying other people's code, solution sets, Google safaris, or from any other sources is strictly prohibited. If you are unsure, then ask.
Some specifics:
One technique we will use to detect cheating is an automated system that performs comparisons across documents. It flags suspicious similarities, which we then inspect manually.If elements of two assignments are determined to be clearly very similar (i.e., we believe that they were done together or one was copied from the other), then the course grade for all students involved in the incident will be reduced by one letter grade for the first offense, and to an F for the second offense. ("All" means both the copy-ers and the copy-ees). The grade for that assignment will also be reduced to 0. The reduction in grade may be taken without discussion or warning; the first notice you receive may be a letter indicating the penalty. In addition, for every instance, a letter to the Office of Student Conduct will be attached to your permanent record, and a copy will be placed in the CS division office. More serious cases of cheating (e.g., cheating on exams) will engender accordingly more severe penalties.
Note that you are responsible for not leaving copies of your assignments lying around and for protecting your files from unauthorized reading.