Professor Dan Rubenstein
Spring 2010
Grading Policy
Your grade consists of:
- 20% Homework: Unless otherwise specified, homework will
be due one week after it is assigned and should be turned directly to
the TAs by 5pm on the day that it is due. CVN students are permitted
the 24 hour extension.
You may discuss and work on questions with other students in the
class. However, you should write your solutions on your own. In
other words, if I were to later ask you to re-derive one of your
homework solutions or to solve a similar problem when you were without
your friends, you should be able to do so or have a clear
understanding of how to approach the problem. This can only be
learned by doing, so you should do your homework.
- 35% Programming Assignments: same rules as homework.
You should write your own code. Note our ability to check the
compiled code for similarities.
- 25% Mid-term March 11 in-class, no calculators.
- 30% Final TBD (by the registrar) closed book
Exams: I try to test your understanding of a concept, and not
just straightforward regurgitation of formulae, i.e., why
certain rules, laws, and techniques hold and are used. Hence, I try
to design the midterm and final questions to test your understanding
of the concepts, not your memorization skills. I realize that some
memorization will undoubtedly be required, but hopefully the memorized
concepts will be those that can be re-derived via your intuition. I
usually take a problem covered in class and put a small ``twist'' on
it, so that blind application of the method won't work, but if you
have the kind of understanding I am looking for (e.g., the kind that
the inventor of the method had), you will know how to adapt the
method.
A note on effort: Your grade will mainly be a reflection of how you
perform on the midterm and final. Homework grades don't have much of
an effect, as long as homework is turned in (i.e., most students
typically get most of the problems right). You should do the
homework so that you learn the material. If you find yourself
copying or getting solutions from someone else without putting in the
effort of solving them yourself, you'll probably find yourself doing
poorly on the exams. You won't get much sympathy from me if you come
crying to me at the end of the term that you did well on the homework
yet poorly on the midterm and final.
If you are a bad test-taker, there is hope! Show me (i.e., in office
hours and class) that you understand what is going on, and I take that
into account when assigning the final grade.
How much I care about helping students is directly proportional
to how much you seem to care about the class (i.e., via attendance,
homework, coming to office hours). I have nothing personal against
students who think the class is a waste of their time or think they
have better things to do with their time. I also have lots to do
besides teaching, and will only make the extra effort for those
students who earn it by putting in the extra effort themselves
(active in class, active at office hours).
Cheating
We will follow the "Policies and Procedures regarding academic
honesty'' laid out by the Computer Science Department