Grading for ECE 264 Summer 2014
Overview
To obtain a passing grade (A-D), a student must obtain:
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30 out of 60 possible exam marks.
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There will be three midterm exams and a final exam, each worth 20 marks.
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The top three exams count toward a student's grade.
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15 out of 30 possible assignment marks.
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There are eight assignments, each worth 5 marks.
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The top six assignments count toward a student's grade.
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Pass all four learning objectives.
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The learning objectives are:
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Recursion
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Structures
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Dynamic structures
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File input/output
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A learning objective is passed by scoring 50% on an appropriately marked question on an exam or assignment.
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Once a learning objective has been passed, it cannot be "unpassed" latter.
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There will be at least two chances to pass each learning objective.
Letter Grades
|
Grade |
Exam Marks |
Assignment Marks |
|
A |
-
Obtain 46 exam marks
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Obtain 25 assignment marks
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Obtain at least 1 mark in every exam (all four exams)
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Obtain at least 1 mark in seven assignment
|
|
B |
46 |
25 |
|
C |
38 |
20 |
|
D |
30 |
15 |
|
F |
-
fail any learning objective or
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below 30 in the total exam score or
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below 15 in the total assignment score
|
Exams
Attendence is encourage; however, exams are not compulsory. Please bring Student IDs to exams.
|
Exam |
Remarks |
Date |
|
Midterm 1 |
In-class, closed-book, 1 hour |
July / 3, 8:40-9:40am, EE170 |
|
Midterm 2 |
2 hour, open-book, out of class |
July / 16, 8:00-10:00pm, EE270 |
|
Midterm 3 |
2 hour, open-book, out of class |
July / 29, 8:00-10-00pm, EE270 |
|
Final |
2 hour, open-book, out of class |
August / 6, 3:30-5:30pm, EE170 |
Assignments
All eight assignments are to be uploaded to Blackboard before 11:59pm on the date indicated. Students may submit as many times as they like; however, only the final submission will be marked. Only files stored on blackboard will be marked. Emailed submissions will be ignored.
Please take care to follow the submission instructions precisely for each assignment. If a student submits the wrong files, then they will receive zero marks. Following the instructions is considered part of obtaining the marks.
If a due date changes, then it will always be indicated at least one week in advance on this page. Late assignments will not be accepted. Please do not ask for an extension. An extension may be granted to the entire class at the discretion of the instructor. An extension will be granted if Blackboard is unavailable within 12 hours of the deadline.
|
Assignment |
Topic |
Due Date |
|
PA01 |
Revision, arrays, c-strings. (Basic string.h functions.) |
Friday, June / 20 |
|
PA02 |
Memory management, function pointers, qsort. (Sorting arrays of strings.) |
Friday, June / 27 |
|
PA03 |
Text file input/output, main functions. (Echo, cat, grep.) |
Thursday, July / 3 |
|
PA04 |
Binary file input/output. (Reading image files.) |
Wednesday, July / 9 |
|
PA05 |
Recursive functions. (Integer partition.) |
Tuesday, July / 15 |
|
PA06 |
Binary trees. (Sparse arrays.) |
Monday, July / 21 |
|
PA07 |
Bit twiddling, binary trees, and linked lists. (Huffman coding.) |
Monday, July / 28 |
|
PA08 |
Threads. (Searching for prime numbers.) |
Friday, August / 1 |
Assignment Marks
Every assignment comes with a "tester" which runs a suite of testcases on a prospective solution. The number of passed testcases is turned into a percentage. Unless otherwise specified, this percentage converts into a mark between zero and five as follows:
|
Mark |
Assignment Mark |
|
5 |
Every testcases passed. |
|
4 |
>90% of testcases passed, but at least one testcase fails. |
|
3 |
80-89% of testcases passed. |
|
2 |
70-79% of testcases passed. |
|
1 |
30-69% of testcases passed, or assignment has one or more compilation warnings. |
|
0 |
0-29% of testcases passed, or assignment does not compile or submission instructions where not followed. |
Learning Objectives
A student must pass all four learning objectives to pass the course. A learning objective is passed by obtaining 50% of the marks in an appropriately specified exam question of assignment. Once an objective is passed, it cannot be "unpassed" latter. There will be at least two chances to pass each learning objective as indicated by the table below. Note that part marks are not given for assignments, and so therefore, the "File Input/Output" learning objective can only be passed by obtaining at least 3 marks in either PA03 or PA04.
|
Assessment |
Recursion |
Structures |
Dynamic Structures |
File Input/Output |
|
Midterm 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Midterm 2 |
x |
x |
|
|
|
Midterm 3 |
x |
|
x |
|
|
Final Exam |
x |
x |
x |
|
|
PA03 |
|
|
|
x |
|
PA04 |
|
|
|
x |
Re-Grade Requests
Students are encouraged to point out and help us fix marking mistakes. All requests must be made with a regrade request form that is submitted within two weeks of the due date of the assignment or exam.
Grades are not negotiable under any circumstances. The teaching staff will do everything possible to help you succeed in this course, but keep in mind that you are responsible for your grade.
Policy For Handling Dishonest Behavior
A student will receive F in they cheat in this class. The student will be reported to ECE main office. There are no exceptions.
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Do not copy code from our classmates or from any other source, including the internet.
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You are not allowed to purchase code from, for example, getacoder.com.
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If a student helps another student cheat (such as giving code), then they will also receive F.
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Students are responsible for protecting their own work. Do not leave a computer unattended. Do not throw away the printout of a programs.
Students are allowed to use code given to by the instructor or generated snippets using the tools approved by the instructor.
Students are encouraged to discuss ideas with classmates; however, they may not share code. If students write code independently, it is extremely unlikely that they will have similar code, even if they have similar ideas on how to solve particular problems. Experienced coders, such as the teaching staff, are able to discern the difference.
We use special tools to check for similarities between programs. These tools can detect similarities even when variables are renamed and when control structures are changed (e.g., for to while). These tools have successfully detected many cases of cheating. Submissions from multiple semesters are always checked.
There have been cases when students claimed that they "accidentally" submitted code from the Internet because these students were "studying" the code. In all these cases the students were considered to be cheating and received the appropriate penalty. It is not possible to "accidentally" submit the code that is not written by you. "Accidentally submitting wrong code" is an invalid defense and will result in you receiving F in this class.
Cheating is self-defeating behavior. Only a fraction of people engage in cheating. If you cheat, then you will eventually get caught. In the meantime, you are wasting your money in school. It is impossible to fake competence, and cheaters actually fail to develop competence. Cheating at university hold no rewards for future life.
Policy for Campus Emergencies
In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines, exams, attendance requirements, and grading percentages are subject to change that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. Information about changes in this course can be received from the course website or by contacting the instructors by email or office phone. If you feel attending lectures would be unsafe, please stay home.
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