Course Policies

Grading

Deliverables

There are 10 to 12 project deliverables and a final exam. Each deliverable will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Students will have opportunities to resubmit deliverables within 2 weeks of initial feedback.

Final exam

The final exam will be a 20-30 minute one-on-one oral exam with the instructor recorded in Zoom. Prior to the exam, a set of practice questions will be provided, with the expectation that students will prepare for the oral exam by coding-up solutions and writing explanations. During the oral exam, the instructor will ask a series of questions covering topics from the course and the practice questions. For example, the instructor may ask:

1. Please explain how you solved a particular question in the practice set.
2. Please solve a new question (perhaps closely related to a question in the practice set).
3. Please explain course topic X.

Students will be graded on both the accuracy of their responses and the clarity with which they explain course concepts and solutions to questions. The final exam will occur between 13 December 2021 and 18 December 2021. Students will sign up for oral exam slots in early December.

Final grades

Final grades will be assigned as follows.

Grade	Requirement
A	A on the final exam & successful completion of all 10 deliverables
B	B on the final exam & successful completion of all 10 deliverables
C	C on the final exam & successful completion of all 10 deliverables
F	Otherwise

UPDATE (2021-10-15)

On days when deliverables are not due, there will be an in-class quiz. Based on the scores on the quiz, final grades will adjusted by a partial letter grade. Exceptional performance on quizzes will bump-up your final grade: an A will become an A+, B to B+, and C to C+. Poor performance on quizzes will result in a bump-down of your final grade: A to A-, B to B-, and C to C-.

Adjustments

The instructor may alter the course content and grading policies during the semester.

Collaborative learning

Students are encouraged to study together. The instructions for each deliverable will indicate if and how students may work together on the deliverable. Students should not collaborate on the final exam. Students that violate the collaborative-work policy on an deliverable will fail the deliverable in question and forfeit the opportunity to retake or resubmit. Students that violate the collaborative-work policy on the final exam will fail all sections of the final exam and forfeit the opportunity to retake or resubmit.