Grading Scale
Grades are assigned on the usual A–E basis. Grading is absolute; there is no curve. Achieving 90% guarantees an A, 80% a B, and so on. (When final grades are assigned, an 85% could receive an A — but this is not a curve.) If everyone does A work, everyone gets an A.
To keep you informed of your grade throughout the semester, four fictitious students will receive grades for each graded item: Minimum A, Minimum B, etc.
Grade Breakdown
Your final grade is computed as:
max(15% programs + 85% quizzes, 15% programs + 60% quizzes + 25% final exam)
Grading Mechanics
All grading is done via Gradescope. Access CSc 422 on Gradescope.
Daily Quizzes
There will be daily quizzes starting on the first day of class. Quizzes start at 8:00am sharp in class and take approximately 5–10 minutes. They cover material from lectures and/or assignments. The lowest five quizzes are dropped. There are no excuses for missing a quiz; if you miss one, it counts as one of your five drops.
By 8:00am sharp, you should be in your seat, connected to the Internet, in "do not disturb" mode, have registered for the quiz (entered your name, ID, magic number, and quiz number), and clicked "Start Quiz." Once the quiz starts you must click to enter fullscreen mode. Exiting fullscreen (or laptop suspend) locks all your answers. Once you receive your magic number, you may not leave class until after the quiz is over.
All quizzes must be taken on your laptop (no phones or tablets). If you do not have a laptop and cannot afford one, please contact me; I can loan you a Chromebook.
Academic honesty note: I am aware that elaborate methods to cheat on quizzes exist. If you attempt to cheat in one of these elaborate ways and are caught, a much harsher penalty than the minimum will be recommended.
Grading Timeliness
I take deadlines seriously and expect you to turn everything in on time. In return:
- Programming assignments will be returned within two weeks.
- All quizzes will be returned before the next class.
- Grades are kept up to date on D2L.
Regrades for Programming Assignments
If you lose points due to failing test cases, the regrade policy is:
- You fix the code and resubmit it.
- We re-execute your program on all test cases, yielding a new grade.
- We apply a penalty. The minimum penalty is 10% per unique bug, but can be more; the more significant the changes, the higher the penalty.
Incompletes and Withdrawals
Requests for incomplete (I) or withdrawal (W) must be made in accordance with University policies, available at the University Catalog.
Important Note on Grading
Your grade will be the one you earn. Under no circumstances will your graduation or visa status affect your grade. This includes situations such as: (1) your parents are coming for graduation, (2) relatives are flying in from halfway around the world, (3) you have a job lined up and have to start immediately, or (4) you got all A's up to this point.