The table below provides a quick overview of each aspect of Compsci 201 that contributes to your final grade. Numerical grades in each category will be averaged with the weights shown to determine your final overall grade.
| Exams | 45% |
| Projects | 30% |
| APT Quizzes | 8% |
| APTs | 7% |
| Discussion | 5% |
| Lecture Questions | 5% |
Your final overall numerical grade (the weighted average of the above categories) will be converted to a letter grade by the following mapping. We do not round values.
| Letter Grade | Needs at least | Letter Grade | Needs at least |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97 | C+ | 77 |
| A | 93 | C | 73 |
| A- | 90 | C- | 70 |
| B+ | 87 | D+ | 67 |
| B | 83 | D | 63 |
| B- | 80 | D- | 60 |
Exams
There are three midterm exams scheduled during the semester. Each will be written and in-person during class. You may bring a single 8.5 x 11 in. reference sheet of your own on which you are welcome to write any notes you wish. You may not use any electronic devices of any kind, nor may you communicate with other students about the exam in any way during the day of the exam.
The final exam will be have three sections corresponding to the topics of the three midterm exams. For each of the three exam sections (corresponding to the three midterms), we will take the better of your midterm exam score and your score on that section of the final exam. Your overall exams score will be the average of your exam score for each of the three sections. This is why in the gradebook you will see three different 15% categories for Exams Part 1, Exams Part 2, and Exams Part 3. The final exam thus serves as the “makeup” for any midterm exams you need to miss as well as an opportunity to improve your score if you are unhappy with your midterm performance. The final exam cannot hurt your exams score.
Projects
These are programming projects that will require several hours to complete. There are seven of these; the first two are 1-week projects and the later 5 are 2-week projects. The 30% of the course grade from projects is broken down as follows.
- P0 – P1: 2.5% each, 2% from the code, 0.5% from the analysis. Lowest code and lowest analysis dropped.
- P2 – P6: 5% each, 4% from the code, 1% from the analysis. Lowest code and lowest analysis dropped.
So on the Sakai gradebook you will see the following categories:
- 4% for P0-P1 code with the lowest dropped
- 2% for P0-P1 analysis with the lowest dropped
- 20% for P2-P6 code with the lowest dropped
- 5% for P2-P6 analysis with the lowest dropped
in order to calculate everything correctly.
You may discuss the assignment and strategies to solve it with other students, but the programs you write and the written answers to questions you submit must be your own.
Each project requires developing code and answering questions about the assignment. You’ll submit using Git and Gradescope and an autograder will determine whether your code passes a suite of tests for each assignment. The written questions are called the project’s analysis and will be graded by teaching assistants for the course.
Projects turned in within 24 hours of the due date will receive no penalty. After that project submissions will lose 10% per day late, and are not accepted more than one week from the due date. We do not grant additional extensions, but we will drop the lowest of P0-P1 and the lowest of P2-P6 as explained above in order to accommodate exceptional circumstances. This will be applied automatically to everyone.
APTs
APT stands for Algorithmic Problem-Solving and Testing. Most weeks you will have a short set of APT style programming problems due on Wednesday. There are several of these sets scheduled throughout the semester. Note that this means each individual problem is worth a very small portion of your grade; these are intended to be regular low-stakes opportunities to practice your programming. Typically you’ll write one method, perhaps with some helper methods, to solve the problem. Testing is online and automated. In general we will do some of these in class and discussion and you’ll do some on your own. As with projects, you may discuss the problems and strategies to solve it with other students, but the programs you write must be your own.
Like projects, APTs turned in within 24 hours of the due date will receive no penalty. After that, APTs will lose 10% per day late, and are not accepted more than one week from the due date. We do not grant further extensions, but we will drop the lowest 2 APT sets in order to accommodate exceptional circumstances. This will be applied automatically to everyone.
APT Quizzes
APT Quizzes are meant to assess your mastery of programming in Java and algorithmic problem solving. There are two APT quizzes scheduled. For each quiz you will have three short programming problems and up to two hours in which to complete them. You may begin the APT Quizzes at any time of your choosing in a window of at least 48 hour prior to the due date.
You may not discuss or otherwise collaborate in any way while completing mini exams. You may use the following resources while completing the quizzes: (a) course materials, including videos, slides, and Zybook, (b) official Java documentation, and (c) any of your own personal notes, and (d) a code editor or IDE such as we use in the course. You should not otherwise search the internet or view/post to forums such as stackoverflow while completing APT quizzes.
Discussion
Discussion sections meet on Friday and will have a series of problems/questions to work through in small groups with other students and with teaching assistants available to guide and help. Attendance at discussion is mandatory for all students.
You can miss 3 discussions with no penalty. However, we do not grant any further exceptions.
Lecture Questions / WOTOs
Most lecture days we will pause for a WOTO (working together) activity during class in which you discuss with your neighbors and answer questions based on the days topics. You will submit your answers via an online form in class.
In class questions are graded for completion, not for correctness. You can miss 6 days of lecture with no penalty. However, we do not grant any further exceptions.
