FAQ

I was absent on the first lecture (Tuesday 1/17) - what do I do?

I missed (or will miss) a Tutorial session, examlet, or homework - what do I do?

I am in lecture section AL1/AL2/BL1/BL2 - is this my website, and what do you mean by sections "A" and "B"?

All sections of this course run in sync and use this website. We refer to both AL1 and AL2 as section A (9:30 meeting time) and BL1/BL2 as section B (12:30 meeting time).

Registration Issues

If you might be a 173 student (e.g. you are trying to join 173, or trying to proficiency out of 173 but haven't passed the exam yet), then it is your responsibility to stay up-to-date with the course as if you were enrolled. Even if you aren't officially registered, you can (and should!) self-register for Piazza and PrairieLearn, and then submit the homework. "I wasn't registered yet" will not be accepted as an excuse for missed work.

I want to join the course but there are no seats!

Keep up to date with the work, and keep an eye on registration - while we can't guarantee you a seat, additional spots do often open up during the first two weeks.

I joined the class late - what do I do?

If necessary, catch up as fast as possible - check the calendar on the homepage for key due dates, and make sure you've registered for the first examlet on PrairieTest. It may take up to 48 hours after you're enrolled before PrairieTest becomes usable. If you've missed any graded work (including Tutorial attendance), follow our normal missed work procedures.

Regrades / broken questions

We try to write questions with no errors and to grade with perfect accuracy. But, of course, we are only human. Mistakes happen and need to be corrected.

I haven't submitted the problem yet, but it's clearly self-contradictory (or otherwise broken)!

While our questions are sometimes broken, the vast majority of the time the question's fine and you are misreading it. It's not too late to figure out what it really means and get it right! Read it again, and make sure you're spending at least as much effort trying to figure out how you could be wrong as you spend trying to explain to us why we're wrong. (Though sometimes the latter is a good way to do the former - write out very explicitly why we're wrong, and then review your argument critically, looking for the weakest point.) If you still think it's wrong and it's a homework question, talk to us in office hours or Piazza; if it's an examlet, then take your best guess.

I submitted the problem, and disagree with the grade I received (either the grading or the question seems wrong).

First look over the given solution and try to figure out on your own what went wrong. If our solution doesn't make sense, talk to us at office hours rather than submitting a regrade request. If after the previous steps you want to submit a regrade request, go to the question on PrairieLearn and click the "Report an error in this question" button. If the issue is with your grade rather than with the question, include the text "Regrade request:" as the first words of your report. Regrade requests might not be considered if submitted beyond one week from when we post grades for the assignment.

Curving and overall letter grade cutoffs

See this page. In particular,

Is an 87% enough for a B+? (etc)

We do not guarantee any thresholds in advance other than the ones linked above.

Is the course curved?

This is the same question as the one above.

Are individual assignments curved?

No.