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CS 3723 Programming Languages Fall 2013 | |
Grading Policy
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- Course Grade: I do not use a predetermined percentage of total points for each grade, but I determine the percentage at the end of the course based on my assessment of how hard the different parts of the course were. Generally, however, I draw the C/D line somewhere around 70% of total points.
- Recitations: Each recitation is described on a separate web page.
All recitations will be counted for credit.
As described in the
page on submission of recitations (submission),
recitations after the first due time are worth only 75% maximum,
and recitations after the second due time are not counted.
Recitations are not like homework in a math class, but they are an
especially important part of this course, more like
laboratories in an engineering class --
you must complete a majority of the
recitations to get a reasonable grade in the course,
and a student with perfect exams and
no recitations will fail the course. The recitations cover material
that is not adequately tested elsewhere.
It is terrible strategy to fail to submit
even a single recitation. This is the one part of your grade
you can control. Last semester some students submitted nothing,
or submitted without any understanding of the requirements.
You can always ask me questions by email at:
-
< nealδοτwagnerατgmailδοτcom >
- Rules for Recitations:
- You must attend a recitation each week (but not the first two weeks, since there are no Monday classes). This is a serious requirement. If you are unable to attend a session, then (of course) you must still do the work and submit the recitation alone (without a partner).
- Sign in each week (but again no sign-in the first two weeks). You must sign the sign-in sheet. There will be very serious consequences for someone signing another person's name. If you are working with a partner, both must sign in. Equally unacceptable is to sign in and leave, or show up at the end and sign in. Forgetting to sign in is not serious, but please try to sign in always.
- Work individually or in pairs. From week to week you may work individually or with another student, and you may switch the student you work with, however you like, consistent with other rules below.
- At most two can work together. Never more than two. No exceptions!
- Partners submit a single recitation with both names on it. Forgetting to put both names on the submission is also not serious, but please try to get both names on.
- Partners must work together during a scheduled recitation session. The only way that two people can submit the same recitation with two names on it is if they both sign in to the same recitation session and work together during that session. I don't plan on any exceptions to this rule. If during some week you can't work together during a scheduled recitation session, then you can't submit the recitation together for that week. You can work individually or with another partner that week.
- Extra recitation session. I have scheduled a third recitation session on Wednesday at 8-8:50 am. (This was the only time slot available, but it may be convenient for some students.) This one is "unofficial", so you can't register for it, but you can attend it. From week to week you may attend any one of the three recitations, without regard to the day you signed up for or which one you attended the previous week.
- Get help and hints. There will probably be a teaching assistant available to help. The instructor will usually be available for help. You can also ask questions by email. Technical questions and answers will be posted.
- Leave early if done. Usually you won't be able to finish in 50 minutes.
- Exam Seating: I may use assigned seating for exams, either alphabetic or reverse alphabetic order, or some other assigned order. I may ask you to leave alternating columns of seats empty.
- Make-up Mid-term Exam: In general I don't give makeup exams, but just count the other course elements for greater credit. If you know before the exam that you won't be able to make it, let me know and we can often work something out. Active-duty military should contact me because I know that military demands can be inflexible.
- Final Exam: The final exam will have most of its emphasis on on material after the mid-term exam.
- Attendance: Attendance at lectures and recitations is required. Recitations will have a record of all attendance, except for the first two weeks.
- Recitation Grade: It is possible to get different grades for the lab and for the course, though this is not common. In no case will a grade >= C- be assigned to one part, with a grade < C- to the other part. (It makes no sense to fail a student in one part, while passing them in another.)
- Grade Distributions: I do not provide information to students about the performance of other students. In particular, I do not give exam averages or distributions, since such information is irrelevant -- you are not competing with other students for a limited number of good grades, and a single course is too small a unit in which to expect a normal distribution of grades.
- Exam Grading: If you have questions about the grading of the mid-term exam, you should write your concerns on the exam itself, indicating each problem and the reasons for concern. Then I will regrade the entire exam. You are expected to list all concerns at one time, so that only one iteration is needed. After the course you can look at the final exam grading.
- What your grade will be: I do not answer questions of the form: "What grade do I need on the final to make X grade in the course?" There are too many variables for me to speculate in this way, and I can only recommend that you try hard, consistent with keeping good grades in other courses (and staying sane).
Revision date: 2013-07-03. (Please use ISO 8601, the International Standard Date and Time Notation.)