Policies

Communication

There will be several routes of communication for this course:

  • The main mode of electronic communication between students and staff, as well as amongst students, is through Piazza. It is intended for general questions about the course, clarifications about assignments, student questions to each other, discussions about material, and so on. We strongly encourage students to participate in discussion, ask, and answer questions through this site. The course staff will monitor discussions closely.
  • If you need to contact the course staff privately, you should email cs188@berkeley.edu. You may of course contact the professors or GSIs directly, but the course email will produce the fastest response.

Prerequisites

  • CS 61A or 61B: Prior computer programming experience is expected (see below)
  • CS 70 or Math 55: Facility with basic concepts of propositional logic and probability are expected (see below)

CS61A AND CS61B AND CS70 is the recommended background.

Course programming assignments will be in Python. We do not assume that students have previous experience with the language, but we do expect you to learn the basics very rapidly. Project 0 is designed to teach you the basics of Python, but if you want to get a head start here is a good tutorial: ACM Python Tutorial

Extensions

Extensions for projects and homeworks are generally granted only if

  1. you have submitted a DSP letter, or
  2. you have a medical or family-related emergency.

In a project group, the DSP extension only applies to the student with accommodation. If both students in the group have accommodation, they need to email the staff individually

For assignments whose solutions are set to released publicly after the deadline, extension can only be requested up to the solutions release time.

Assignments

This class includes 5 programming projects, 7 electronic homework assignments, and 4 written assessments.

Late Policy

Electronic homeworks and written assessments cannot be turned in late. If you don’t submit an electronic homework on time, you have to use your homework drop. Projects lose 20% of their total point value per day turned in late. However, projects also have slip days which can be used to delay the onset of the late policy. See the Project Slip Days.

Collaboration

Project 0 is to be completed alone. Projects 1 through 5 can be completed alone or in teams of two. If done in a team of two, the person who submits needs to tag the other team member on Gradescope. However, it is important that the submission reflects the understanding of both team members. Written assessments are to be completed individually. No discussion is permitted.

Project Slip Days

Programming projects must be turned in electronically by the listed due date and time. You will have a total of 5 slip days to be used across ALL projects to extend a deadline. Note that slip days are counted by the granularity of days, rounded up to the nearest day. For example, if you have yet to use your two slip days: for a project due at midnight (11:59 PM) on Friday, any submission from Friday midnight to Saturday midnight will use up one slip day, any submission from Saturday midnight to Sunday midnight will use up two slip days, and any submissions after Sunday midnight will begin being penalized by the late policy. Slip days will be applied to your grades at the end of the semester in a manner which maximizes your project grades. You may only use maximum two slip-days per project. You may only use maximum two slip-days per project

Project Grading

Projects will by default be graded automatically for correctness, though we will review projects individually as necessary to ensure that they receive the credit they deserve. Projects can be submitted as often as you like; we strongly encourage you to keep working until you get a full score.

Electronic Homework

Electronic HW (hosted on Gradescope) is meant to reinforce and give practice with concepts covered in class. They will be automatically graded for correctness, and you can submit as many times as you like up to the deadline; again we encourage you to work until you have fully solved the homework. Electronic homeworks will generally be released Saturday, and due the following Friday. Electronic homeworks have no slip days. You will each be allowed to drop your lowest electronic homework and we will drop your lowest E-hw by default. Note that this policy is also meant to deal with cases like internet issues while submitting, forgetting about the deadline, emergency situations, joining the class late, etc.

Written assessments

Written assessments (submitted to Gradescope) are meant to make you think beyond strict repetition of what is covered in class and is used to reinforce conceptual material that you will see on exams. Written assessments have no slip days or drops.

Ethics

Submissions should acknowledge all collaborators and sources consulted. All code and written responses should be original. We trust you all to submit your own work, but to protect the integrity of the course from anyone who doesn't want to play by the rules, we will actively be checking for code plagiarism (both from current classmates and previous semesters). All midterms, written assessments, and the final exam must be completed individually without any consultation or collaborators; we reserve the right to give an additional oral exam to ensure the student's understanding of the material on any midterm exam, written assessment, or final exam. We are not lenient about cheating; we sympathize with Kris Pister's policy .

Exams

Midterm 1: July 13th. Midterm 2: July 29th. Final: August 13.

Grading

Overall grades will be determined from:

  • Programming Assignments (25%)
  • Electronic Homework Assignments (15%)
  • Written Assesments (15%)
  • Midterm (10% each)
  • Final exam (25%)

Grades are on the following fixed scale: (Refer to Notations for Intervals if you are not familiar with the notations below.)

| Grade |  Overall Percentage  |
| ----- | -------------------- |
| A     |       [85, 100]      |
| A-    |       [80, 85)       |
| B+    |       [75, 80)       |
| B     |       [70, 75)       |
| B-    |       [65, 70)       |
| C+    |       [60, 65)       |
| C     |       [55, 60)       |
| C-    |       [50, 55)       |
| D+    |       [45, 50)       |
| D     |       [40, 45)       |
| D-    |       [35, 40)       |
| F     |       [0 , 35)       |

The instructors may adjust grades upward based on class participation, extra credit, etc. The grade of A+ will be awarded at the instructors’ discretion based on exceptional performance.

Regrade Policy: If you believe an error has been made in the grading of one of your exams or assignments, you may resubmit it for a regrade. Regrades for cases where we misapplied a rubric in an individual case are much more likely to be successful than regrades that argue about relative point values within the rubric, as the rubric is applied to the entire class. Because we will examine your entire submission in detail, your grade can go up or down as a result of a regrade request.

Enrollment

Here are the policies that govern admission into classes, and here are some answers to frequently asked questions about admission. The course staff does not control enrollment!.