Grading formula and assigned work for CS 173

Your final average is a weighted combination of your averages on examlets and PrairieLearn assignments. Specifically

When we translate these averages into final letter grades, a score of 90 will be at least an A-, 80 at least a B-, 70 at least a C-, 50 at least a D-. If the raw scores are running excessively low, we may revise these cutoffs to be more generous. However, this has happened only very rarely in recent years. In recent terms, around three quarters of the grades have been A's and B's.

This course does not give A+ grades.

Monitoring grades

You are responsible for keeping an eye on your PrairieLearn grades and promptly reporting apparent errors. See the FAQ for how to report grading and/or grade entry problems. In particular, you are responsible for making sure your tutorial problems have received a non-zero grade before you leave tutorial.

If the scores you are receiving alarm you, seek help.

Readings and lectures

Video lectures will be posted each week. However, you are also expected to prepare for each lecture by doing the posted readings. Basic material (e.g. basic definitions) is typically not covered in the videos. (The first-week videos are more comprehensive because we are just getting started.)

Examlets

There will be bi-weekly examlets - these account for most of your final course average. We plan 7 bi-weekly examlets, each is 50 minutes long. The lowest of the first six examlet scores will be dropped, since that content will be re-tested on the final examlet.

Sign up for each examlet far in advance! The CBTF usually opens signups on PrairieTest 11 days before each examlet. Timeslots may fill up, and we will not accept "the CBTF ran out of timeslots" as an excuse for missing an examlet.

Before the first examlet, familiarize yourself with the basic CS 173 exam instructions. Only the most critical parts will be explicitly included on the individual exams.

Questions on examlets are sometimes exact copies of homework or study problems, or problems used in past terms. They might be entirely new. Or they might look similar to past problems 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.

High-level rubrics for the manually-graded examlet questions will be released a day or two before the CBTF window for taking each examlet.

Final Exam

The final exam wil be similar in content to examlets but rather than just being on the most recent material will will be comprehensive and 1 hour and 50 minutes. It will be about twice the length of a standard examlet.

Pre-Unit Homeworks

Each week will have one Pre-Unit Homework due Monday. These are autograded on PrairieLearn, and you can submit them as many times as needed to get full credit.

To handle incidental issues that can come up, your lowest three scores will be dropped when computing your final average.

Tutorials

The Thursday lecture section each week will be a tutorial (except for Week 1). In this you will be given a set of problems on the material that was covered in the lecture/discussion on Tuesday and you will be asked to work on them. You may work on your own or in a group. But if you work in a group, each of you must write up your own answer.

Your answer should normally be typed into PrairieLearn, because this helps you prepare for the examlets. If this can't work (e.g. you run out of time or your laptop has died), the backup plan is to show a paper version to the course staff. You will be graded based on making a good faith attempt at the problem but you will also be given feedback as to how your answer would have been graded on an examlet. To do this there will be a large number of staff present on Thursday to help both record your scores and give feedback.

To handle incidental issues that can come up, your lowest three scores will be dropped when computing your final average.