Grading Policy

Your class grade will be divided as follows:

Final Exam: 30%
Mid-term Exam: 20%

Homework (two total): 10%

Team Machine Problems (eight total): 30%

Participation (Class involvement and pop quizzes): 10%

Here is more information:

Final (30%): There will be one final exam during the finals week. The finals schedule is determined centrally at UIUC and will be reported as soon as it is announced.
Midterm (20%): There will be a midterm on Wednesday, October 17^th, 2007. Please mark your calendar.
Homework (10%): There will be two homeworks during the semester (each worth 5% of the grade). The two homeworks are intended to prepare you for the midterm and final respectively. They will be posted on the class web site. Homework must be done by individual students, NOT in groups. Each student submits typed solutions to the TAs via the Compass program (http://compass.uiuc.edu) by the deadline indicated in the homework.

Note: We will also post 'shadow homeworks' as a resource for students to prepare for exams. The shadow homeworks will not be graded. We will post the problems and later post their solutions. We strongly encourage you to go over these problems and work on them as part of the CS 241 exams preparation.

Team machine problems (30%): There will be six Short Machine Problems (SMPs), numbered SMP0-SMP5 and two Long Machine Problems (LMPs), numbered LMP1 and LPM2. SMPs will be one week long and are 3% each. LMPs will be two weeks long and 6% each. Machine problem solutions must be handed by the respective deadlines via Compass. Machine problems (MPs) should be solved collaboratively in groups of two students. Please find a partner for your MPs early on. Each group will submit only one solution per MP and will share the MP grade. The group of students should typically stay together for all MPs. Please be considerate. If you need to drop the class, then (1) inform your lab partner, and (2) drop the class after an MP is finished and before the next MP is assigned. Please do not leave your MP partner right before the deadline of an MP.
Participation and Pop Quizzes (10%): The instructor will offer several opportunities for interaction in class, such as in-class discussions, questions, and opinions to seek your input on various class-related topics. You are expected to be an active participant in class. Participation in class is worth 10%. This grade also includes pop quizzes.

Note: Practice quizzes will be offered on Compass for you to test your knowledge. These are a study resource and will not be graded. Solutions will be posted.

Grading Exceptions, Re-grading, and Special Circumstances:

· Deadlines: Please be mindful of deadlines. These deadlines are strict and late submissions will not be considered. The reason is, solutions will be posted soon after the deadline! While we shall try to accommodate special extenuating circumstances (such as death in the family, hospitalization, etc), the rule is that no credit is given for late submissions. An example of an unacceptable excuse is “Server went down the night before the deadline and we could not finish the MP”. Please submit early to leave enough leeway for unexpected circumstances.

· Re-grading window: After the grades for a quiz, homework, MP or exam are available, you have 1 week to request re-grading of the homework/MP/exam/Quiz. If you believe you were not graded correctly, please help up by asking for regarding during that window. Otherwise, your request may be delayed.

· Religious holidays: If you observe a religious holiday that interferes with getting a machine problem or homework completed, please let the TA know ahead of time. Given the circumstances, we will try to accommodate such reuqests by issuing extensions as appropriate.

· Honor code: You are a respected individual in a community of collegiality and trust. We honor and believe your word. We trust what you say and will generally not ask for proof. However, with trust comes responsibility. Violation of trust will not be tolerated. In particular, acts not befitting this community such as cheating (e.g., collaboration on homeworks or exams that are not meant to be collaborative) fall in the category of violation of trust. Individuals who commit such acts will lose the privileges of trust and receive a zero on the assignment in question. Repeat offenders will receive an F in class.

· Tips about your work:

o Your homework, exams, and quizzes in this class must be your own. If you have any questions about this policy, please talk to the staff.

o Your machine problems will be a result of group work (pair). The group is responsible for protecting their work. In the past, we had cases of copying solutions from other students without their knowledge. To avoid having your work copied without your knowledge, refrain from leaving source code prints lying around the lab, protect your files, don't give your passwords to anyone, and enter your passwords in a way that cannot be seen by others. Do not leave a login session active on an unattended workstation. Use xlock on the CSIL workstations if you must leave briefly, or use some similar measure (or log out!) in other labs; remember that it's a violation of the CSIL policy (and probably the other lab policies) to leave your workstation unattended for any extended period of time. Report suspicious behavior to the lab sitters or the TAs.

Final Grades

Nominally, 90-100% is an A range, 80-89% is a B range, 70-79% is a C range, and 60-69% is a D range. Within each range the bottom 3% is a “-” and the top 3% is a “+”. For example 82% is a B-, 75% is a C, and 97.2 is an A+.

Updated: August 20, 2007