"CS 374": Grading Policies

• Graded homework and exams
• Regrade requests
• Final course grades

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask in lecture, during office hours, or in Piazza (either publicly or via a priave post to the instructors).

Graded work

• Quizzes are graded automatically by Moodle. Your grade is recorded as soon as you submit each quiz. You are allowed unlimited number of attempts at the quiz. Your score is the last score of all the attempts. Make sure to not leave your browser on the quiz page after submitting the quiz, if you do not plan to attempt it again; open browser pages are automatically submitted when the quiz is due, and this may count as your last attempt.
• Homeworks are graded by the entire course staff, directly within Gradescope. To keep grading consistent, each numbered problem is graded by two undergraduate CAs, under the supervision of a graduate TAs, using a detailed rubric developed within Gradescope. Under normal circumstances, all homework should be graded within 10 calendar days of submission.
• Exams are graded by Mahesh and the graduate TAs, also within Gradescope. Under normal circumstances, exams should be graded within two weeks. You can retrieve your original ungraded paper (including your cheat sheet) in office hours a few days after the exam, once we've had a change to scan everything.
• Homework and exam solutions will be posted within two to three days after the corresponding submission deadline. Homework and exam solutions will include the rubrics used by the graders.

Regrade requests

• Submit your regrade requests directly within Gradescope. If you have questions or concerns about any grade, we strongly encourage you talk with the course staff before submitting a regrade request. However, no grades will be changed in any student's presence; you must submit an official request.
• Regrade requests can be submitted up to two weeks after the graded work is returned. Regrade requests for the final exam can be submitted up to three weeks after the exam scores are released. Late regrade requests will be denied.
• All regrade requests must include a brief written justification for the request. (Fill in the appropriate textbox on Gradescope.) Good justifications include the following:
  • My answer agrees with the posted solution, but I still lost points.
  • I lost 4 points for an incorrect time analysis, but the rubric says that's only worth 2 points.
  • You took off points for missing the base case, but it's right here.
  • My answer is correct, even though it does not match the posted solution.
  • There is no explanation for my grade.
  • The official solution is incorrect; here's a counterexample.
  • I got a perfect score, but my solution has an error.
  Regrade requests with poor or missing justifications will be denied.
• We can only grade what you actually submitted. You cannot get a higher grade by explaining what you meant, either in person or in writing; your original submission must stand on its own.
• If you submit a regrade request, we will regrade the submitted problem from scratch. The TAs will regrade homework problems; Jeff will regrade exam problems. Your grade may go down.
• If you submit a regrade request correctly reporting that a problem was graded too leniently—that is, your score is higher than the published rubric indicates—you will be awarded extra credit and keep your original grade for that problem.
• We will consider regrade requests for the final exam only if a successful regrade would change the student's overall course grade.
• We will readily admit, apologize for, and correct our mistakes if you have been graded unfairly. However, please remember that "unfairly" means your grade is inconsistent with the published grading rubric, or that you were graded more harshly than other students, not just that you think the rubric itself is too harsh. Please also keep in mind that each homework point is worth approximately 0.1% of your final course grade.

Final course grades

1. Compute raw totals from homework and exam scores, excluding extra credit. Course work is weighted as follows:
   • 6% Quizzes: We will drop your five lowest quiz scores.
   • 24% Homework: We expect to assign about 30 homework problems. We will drop your six lowest homework problem scores (not your six lowest homework sets).
   • 70% Exams: There will be two midterm exams, each worth 20% of your raw total, and a cumulative final exam, worth 30% of your raw total. We do not plan to drop any exam problems.
   • Exceptions: Any forgiven homeworks or exams will be treated as though they were never assigned; we will drop the same fraction of each student's unforgiven scores. On the other hand, we will not drop zeros that result from cheating offenses.

2. Compute adjusted totals, which include extra credit points. Extra credit points are not necessarily worth the same as regular points.

3. Remove outliers at both ends of the curve.
   • Anyone with an adjusted total over 90% automatically gets an A+. This rule typically applies to the top 2–3% of the class.
   • Anyone with an adjusted total below 33% or an adjusted homework total below 50%, or an adjusted exam total below a threshold to be determined based on the difficulty of the exams, or who otherwise does not appear to be making a good faith effort, automatically gets an F. This rule typically applies to the bottom 2-3% of the class. These are not the only ways to fail!

4. Determine letter-grade cutoffs from the raw totals. Outliers are excluded from the cutoff computation to avoid unfairly skewing the curve. The mean is a borderline B–/C+, and each standard deviation is worth one full letter grade. For example, the B+/B cutoff is 2/3 standard deviations above the mean, and the D/D– cutoff is 5/3 standard deviations below the mean.

5. Compute final letter grades (for non-outliers) from adjusted totals.

6. Adjust grades upwards as necessary to account for exam difficulty (or ease), student marked improvement, or to take into account other miscellaneous factors.