The final grade consists of
| homework | 10% |
| quizzes | 40% |
| midterm | 25% |
| final | 25% |
The final IS cumulative. Each student's lowest quiz grade and lowest homework grades are dropped in forming their average. Late homeworks are not accepted and makeups are not given for quizzes.
Homework is "handed out" by posting it on the web site. The due date and time for each homework will be posted at the same time as the homework itself. The solution for the homework will be posted when the homework is due. At that point no further homework is accepted for handin.
Both TAs will count the homeworks that are handed in as will Professor Harrison. We will verify that this same number of homeworks is graded and handed back. If we have not lost any homeworks between the time that homeworks are handed in to us and the time that homeworks are handed back to the class, then no tales of lost or missing homeworks will be entertained by us.
If you would like to earn extra credit, you may do a project for the course. Please contact Prof. Harrison to agree on a suitable project. No projects will be accepted without prior agreement from Prof. Harrison. A project is worth at most one letter grade difference in the course. Apart from the question of extra credit, a project is an excellent way to get a deeper appreciation of computer architecture.
To proficiency the course you must take the mid-term and the final at the same time as the rest of the class and obtain an average grade of B or better on these exams. Make-up policy is the same for students taking the proficiency as for the rest of the class.
Homeworks must be done individually. If we determine that you have done homework collaboratively, by allowing your homework to be copied or by copying someone else's, you will lose a letter grade in the course. If this happens twice you will fail the course.
If you cheat on a project by plagiarism, you will fail the course, even if you get 100% on every exam, homework and quiz and are a revolutionary genius in the field of computer architecture. This is taken very seriously by Professor Harrison because he uses the project materials as additional course materials and plagiarism by the students becomes plagiarism by Professor Harrison. Don't go there.
Making up a bogus excuse to take a make-up exam is cheating. It will result in a zero on the exam. See the section on Absences and Makeups below.
Makeups are not given for quizzes. It is the purpose of the "drop the lowest grade" policy to allow students one missed quiz without consequence. There is no makeup for late or missing homeworks.
Makeup exams for midterms and finals are not the same exam as the normally schedule exam. They are intentionally made somewhat more difficult in order to account for the fact that students taking a makeup have longer to study for it than the rest of the class. In order to take a makeup you must have a legitimate excuse. If the excuse is medical, you must have a signed note from a Medical Doctor, including his/her phone number, to the effect that the illness is too serious for you to take an exam. A timestamped paper from McKinley counts for nothing with Professor Harrison. These papers are available to all those who stroll by McKinley. A note from the Dean's office is not much more difficult to obtain than a timestamped paper from McKinley and also counts for nothing with Professor Harrison. Only a signed doctor's note as described above counts with Professor Harrison. Professor Harrison went to school at the University of Illinois also.