The work you must do for this course includes:
There will be fortnightly examlets, held at on every other Thursday beginning in the third week of classes. We plan 6 examlets, each about 60 minutes long (you will have 75 minutes to do it). There will also be a short final exam, consisting of two parts:
The whole final (both parts together) is worth 15% (or 1.5x earlier examlets).
When computing final averages, we do not drop any examlet scores. However, during our final exam period, you can choose to re-take one of examlets 1-12. Your retake score will replace your original score if it is better,. The retake process is useful for improving a poor score or filling in a zero.
If you must miss an examlet for some compelling reason such as illness, see the procedures for excuses and special circumstances. In such cases, you'll still have to make up the examlet, but the makeup will be soon after the original date and for full credit (typically Monday or Wednesday). Please send email as soon as possible to me and your discussion leader (TA), and include your schedule.
Review materials for each examlet will be posted on the Exams page about a week before the examlet. Before the first examlet, familiarize yourself with the basic CS 173 exam instructions, since they will not be printed on the exam itself.
Questions on examlets may be include exact copies of homework problems, or similar problems, or problems that are less similar but on the same topic. They might be similar to exam problems from past terms, or perhaps different, or perhaps look generally similar but differ in critical details. We make no promises about whether you will or won't be doing a problem that you've seen before. Similarly, makeups and retake exams may use previously-seen problems and/or new ones. Therefore, when studying for an examlet, concentrate on mastering general skills rather than memorizing specific solutions.
You will need to prepare for each lecture by doing the posted readings. After the lecture, you can do an on-line Moodle based assignment based on these readings. These assignments may also contain questions that review earlier material (including material from course prerequisites). It is ok to look at the Moodle assignment before the lecture if it is already open.
The assignments are intended to be relatively straightforward if you've made a good-faith attempt to do the readings and are up-to-date with course material (a few questions may be more difficult). These quizzes give you immediate feedback on your total score and can be submitted as many times as you like.
You should do the reading quizzes on your own, because the process of finding the answers helps you remember the answers. You may use other textbooks and the internet to help find answers, but be aware that some details vary from author to author and you must follow the conventions of our textbook.
We will drop your lowest two quiz scores in computing your reading quiz average.
Moodle will not allow you to submit quizzes late. Moreover, moodle will not let you review answers to an activity that you never submitted. So, make sure to submit at least once before the deadline, even if your submission is incomplete (or even blank). If you were unable to submit a quiz on time for reasons beyond your control, or if you ran into technical issues with your submission, contact the instructor for help.
We'll drop your (one) lowest assignment grade when computing your average on assignments.
You are expected to attend the discussion you are registered for. During discussions, you will work on problems in small groups, getting feedback from course staff. Each person must turn in their work for each problem. Use a carbonless-duplicate lab notebook (or something similar) to retain a copy for your own use, as the submitted copies will not be returned.
The expectation is that everyone present at a discussion will receive 100% credit for that week's discussion problems, so discussion averages would largely reflect attendance. However, we reserve the right to take off points (or even give zero credit) if submissions or behavior during discussion suggest that you aren't making a good-faith effort to do the work as intended. We hope this will be extremely rare. The lowest discussion grade will be dropped.
Study problems
Each week, we will post a set of study problems which should be completed before you take the corresponding examlet. It's better to finish them a few days earlier, so you have time to seek help if you're having trouble with some type of problem. You should write up a solution to each problem on your own, as if you were taking an exam or turning in a graded homework, before checking your answers against the posted solutions. You may freely consult friends and/or course staff for help checking your answers and for hints if you get stuck.
Study problems are not graded and do not directly affect your course average. However, they are not optional. If you don't do them, or if you peek at the answers before making a good faith attempt to write your own solutions, you won't be properly prepared to do similar problems on the examlet.
Please do not post solutions or partial solutions (e.g. on piazza) because other folks may be attempting the problems later than you. Contact the instructors privately if you think we need to add something to the posted solutions or hints. However, public discussion of general concepts and techniques is fine.
You are responsible for keeping an eye on your moodle gradebook and promptly reporting apparent errors. Do not discard returned work such as examlet sheets until you have confirmed that the number appears properly in your gradebook listing. For each grade item and average, moodle will show you how you stand relative to the rest of the class. If the percentage and/or the rank number alarms you, seek help.
The Examlet grades appear on Compass. Please go to: http://compass2g.illinois.edu/ to check them.