Grades
This class may be taken only for a letter grade. The course letter grade is a function of a weighted average of graded components. The weights for grade components is given below.
The graded components of the course are:
- 7 programming assignments
- 7 laboratory assignments
- 1 mid-quarter examination
- the final examination.
For each laboratory assignment, students use turnin to turn in their work. Each student gets either a 0 or a 1 for each laboratory assignment. Students may work in pairs. As is the case for programming assignments, a pair turns in only 1 outcome for the laboratory, with both student names in each of their files.
Your Weighted Average
There are several possible grade component weightings used to determine your weighted average. For each student, the grade component weighting that maximizes the student's weighted average is used. These options exist to accommodate each student's personal circumstances in a manner that is objective & transparent. No exceptions are made. Do not ask.
| Weighting | Homework | Laboratory | Mid-Quarter Exam | Final Exam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option 1 | 60% | 5% | 15% | 20% |
| Option 2 | 60% | 5% | 10% | 25% |
| Option 3 | 60% | 0% | 15% | 25% |
| Option 4 | 60% | 0% | 10% | 30% |
| Option 5 | 55% | 5% | 15% | 25% |
| Option 6 | 55% | 0% | 15% | 30% |
Your Course Grade
Course letter grades are determined by the following table. The letter grade range is given in terms of one's relative performance (class percentile) & in terms of one's absolute performance (weighted average). Each student's letter grade is determined by the performance indicator that produces the highest letter grade for that student. No exceptions are made. Do not ask.
| Grade Range | Class Percentile | Weighted Average |
|---|---|---|
| A- ... A+ | Top quarter of class | at least 90% |
| B- ... B+ | 2nd quarter of class | [80% - 90%) |
| C- ... C+ | 3rd quarter of class | [70% - 80%) |
| F ... D+ | bottom quarter of class | below 70% |
The quartiles are defined in terms of the enrolled undergraduates. This generally makes it fairer to both graduate & undergraduate students.
Grade Component Statistics
| Component | Mean | Maximum Achieved | Total Possible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programming assignment 1 | 8.00 | 10 | 10 |
| Programming assignment 2 | 10.21 | 14 | 14 |
| Programming assignment 3 | 8.38 | 10 | 10 |
| Programming assignment 4 | 8.73 | 10 | 10 |
| Programming assignment 5 | 7.05 | 10 | 10 |
| Programming assignment 6 | 9.60 | 14 | 14 |
| Mid-quarter examination | 65.33 | 87 | 100 |
| Final examination | 69.63 | 92 | 100 |
Course Grade Quartiles
The quartiles below represent the following calculation:
- Compute the program assignment component:
10 * (total program assignment grade - minimum grade) / 5. - Compute the laboratory assignment component:
100 * total laboratory assignment grade / 9. - Compute each of the 6 weighting options.
- Compute the maximum of these options.
- Sort on the number computed above.
| Quartile | Top | Bottom |
|---|---|---|
| 1st (top) | 103.72 | 98.22 |
| 2nd | 95.65 | 89.50 |
| 3rd | 88.86 | 78.52 |
| 4th | 76.69 | 42.60 |
Conduct
You are required to work on the homework assigments on your own. Please check the UCSB catalogue on the topic of Academic conduct.
"The core of a university's integrity is its scholastic honesty. Academic dishonesty vitiates the university's educational role and defrauds all who comprise its community. It is expected that students understand and subscribe to the ideal of academic integrity and are willing to bear individual responsibility for their work. Any work (written or otherwise) submitted to fulfill an academic requirement must represent a student's original work. Materials submited to fulfill academic requirements must represent a student's own efforts. An act of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or other forms of cheating, is unacceptable and will be met with disciplinary action.
"Using or attempting to use materials, information, study aids, or commercial "research" services not authorized by the instructor of the course constitutes cheating. Representing the words, ideas, or concepts of another person without appropriate attribution is plagiarism. Whenever another person's written work is utilized, whether it is a single phrase or more, quotation marks must be used, and sources cited. Paraphrasing another's work, i.e., borrowing the ideas or concepts and putting them into one's "own" words, also must be acknowledged. Although a person's state of mind and intention will be considered in determining the University response to an act of academic dishonesty, this in no way lessens the responsibility of the student."
Examinations
Content
You are responsible to understand the material contained in the reading assignments & the lectures. An in-class examination is at most a 75-minute test. It thus cannot cover all the material that you are responsible to know. If you want to guess what material you can safely ignore, that, of course, is your option. I would like you to understand all of the material. Thus, in the interest of encouraging you to learn all the material, I will not suggest that it is safe for you to omit any portion of it from your study plan. If you think this is unfair, feel free to say "Pete Cappello did not tell us which portion of the reading & lecture material we could safely assume would not be examined." That is an accurate statement. This is a university, not a community college. You are computer science majors. I implore you: Devote as much time as it takes to understand this material in its entirety. I am happy to help you learn. Always feel free to ask questions during the lecture period, & out of class. Minimizing the effort to get by is no way to approach your career. Being a competent computer scientist requires a lifetime of intellectual effort. Embrace it.
Process
- There must be at least 1 empty seat between every 2 students.
- You may not leave the room during the examination, even to go to the bathroom.
- You may not use any personal devices, such as calculators, PDAs, or cell phones.
Make-ups, Exceptions, & Incompletes
For me, grading is the distasteful part of the course. Because grades, for better or worse, are important to success as a student at UCSB, some students will request that course policies be relaxed for them.
- You cannot request a make-up examination on the day of, or after, the examination.
- The course grade policy will not be modified for anyone. Don't ask. It is my job to protect the every student in the class from students who privately petition for exceptional treatment. Regarding grade policy, no student is treated differently from any other, no matter how compelling they feel their personal circumstances are.
- If you have personal problems, I may either sign your petition to drop the course or permit an incomplete grade. I will not modify the course grade policy for you.
- Consider the course drop option carefully. Once the drop deadline has passed, you are here for the whole ride, except under circumstances as mentioned above.
Questioning a grade
You have at most 2 weeks from the time the graded item was handed back to question a grade. You do this by seeing the person who graded the item during their office hours. After that period, the grade you received is final.
Maintaining the Grade Data Base
Please keep your graded material. If there is a discrepancy between the grade information that you received & what is recorded in our database, please provide your grade evidence to either me or your TA. We will correct the database.