Course Information
This page explains the courses' policies and grading.
Grading
The course will be graded on a traditional 60-70-80-90 system as shown below.
Grade Scale:
| 90 - 100 | = A |
| 80 - 89 | = B |
| 70 - 79 | = C |
| 60 - 69 | = D |
| 0 - 59 | = F |
Important: In addition to the total overall class percentage for determining your grade, you must have a passing average (>60 average) on the 3 exams and the final exam all combined together, not each one individually, in order to pass the course as well. We implement this policy as a check-and-balance with respect to the HWs and our allowance of collaboration on them. Note that this does not mean that you have the option of only using the four exams to determine your grade. All the categories above will be used in the grade calculation, but in addition, you must have a passing grade on just the four exams in order to pass the course. For (non-CS/CM) students who are taking the course P/F, you must earn 60% to earn a P (and on the exams too).
You have one week from the time we post your exam or homework grade to file a challenge to the grading. After that time, the grade will stand. The grade doesn't need to be resolved in 1 week, but you must notify someone with specific issues about a question on the exam or a homework for the grade to be eligible to be changed.
All grades will be determined by work done throughout the semester. Students will never be allowed to do "extra work or projects" after the term to boost their grade. Please do not appeal at the end of a term for special consideration. All students will be treated equally and fairly.
Course Grade Percentages:| Program Homeworks | 9 @ 2% | 18% | ||
| Programming Exercises | 4 @ 1% | 4% | ||
| Exam 1 | 14% | |||
| Exam 2 | 17% | |||
| Exam 3 | 17% | |||
| Final Exam | 26% | |||
| Attendance & Participation | 4% |
Exam Policy
The written exams will be conducted during lecture periods as indicated on the class schedule. The written exams will cover concepts, as well as aspects of coding. Material from lecture and from the assigned sections of the book will be covered in each written exam. It is also expected that you will be familiar with the material and concepts from any programming homework that is due prior to an exam. One of the best ways to do well in this class is to thoroughly complete all the HWs and learn all the ideas that are embodied in them. This is not a course about memorization; it is about problem-solving. There are no cheat-sheets or calculators allowed during the exams.
All students are expected to attend the exams. Forgetting about the exam and simply missing it are not proper excuses and will receive a zero score.
Programming Homeworks
During the course of the semester, there will be approximately one programming assignment per week on the weeks without exams. The HWs will be distributed via Canvas. They will be due at 8 pm, typically on Thursday evenings, with a grace period until midnight. We recommend that you start on the HWs early. Do not leave them until the night they are due. If you are stuck on a portion of the program for longer than the recommended time, you should definitely see your TA to get a stronger understanding of the concepts involved prior to putting continued effort into the assignment.
Note that an assignment turned in at one minute after midnight is not one minute late. It is four hours and one minute late. And no smart student would ever ask to have a program considered that is over four hours late.
You should also read the collaboration policy below to learn about our policies about how you can work on the HW assignments with your peers, if you so choose. For all assignments, you will submit all the source files (.java) that you created to Canvas/Gradescope. Make sure to practice safe-submission and retrieve your submission after you submit it to make sure all the files you thought you turned in were there.
After receipt of a homework grade, you have two weeks to inquire about the grade and check into any potential grading problems with your homework.
Programming Exercises
In addition to the regular weekly HW programs, we also will have four shorter programming exercises. These likely will occur early in the semester and they'll be designed to give you more practice developing basic programming skills. These will effectively be shorter and easier assignments like the weekly HW programs. These will likely be due on Tuesday nights at 8pm with a grace period until midnight like the regular programming HWs.
Class Attendance
All students are required and expected to attend class. No lecture notes/slides will be published, hence the need for class attendance. If you want to take notes from lecture on your laptop, that is fine. Otherwise (eg, reading email or Facebook), please don't bring your laptop or simply keep it closed.
The attendance portion of your grade will be determined by your presence in class for a series of pop quizzes typically given near the end of random classes. The percentage you earn on that component of the class grade will be determined by the percentage of pop quizzes you turn in. Note that you must be present for the actual class to turn in a quiz. Having a friend text you that a quiz is occurring and you running in for the final five minutes of a class does not constitute attendance.
HW Collaboration Policy
We have chosen to focus the assessment of students' knowledge of course concepts and skills on in-class exams rather than homework assignments. Homework assignments are opportunities for learning and discovery; they are not instruments of evaluation. (In fact, homework assignments are considered in the final grade largely to motivate students to work on the assignments.)
Because homework assignments are now not used for assessment, we relax the constraints on collaboration with respect to these assignments, that is, collaboration between students in CS 1331 in permitted. Collaboration includes students working together to gain an understanding of course concepts, active discussions with teaching assistants and instructors to learn about course material, and interactions in other GT-approved activities that help students to learn and understand the topics covered in the course. We do expect that you understand and can explain any homework solution that you submit, no matter how you worked on it.
As has always been the case, however, plagiarism is not allowed. Plagiarizing is defined by Webster's as "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source." Taking assignments from other classmates, being given a homework solution from an outside GT source, or downloading completed assignments from websites are considered plagiarism and are not allowed. You should not give a copy of your code, or a portion of your code to another student. You should not email your code, IM your code, or share your code with other students. You should not allow another student to look at your code for the purpose of copying it into their assignment. These are activities that are simply meant to earn a score, not understand our course material. If caught plagiarizing, you will be dealt with according to the GT Academic Honor Code.
If you collaborate with other students in class or use approved sources other than those provided for everyone in the course (e.g., instructors, teaching assistants, the textbook, the course web site, the course newsgroups, the lectures, or the recitations) to help yourself learn and understand, then you must give appropriate credit to those collaborators and/or sources. As long as you acknowledge the collaboration that occurred, your grade will not be affected nor will you be charged with academic misconduct. On the other hand, a failure to acknowledge collaborations or give appropriate credit to sources of help (other than course materials or personnel as noted above) will be treated as plagiarism, a violation of Georgia Tech's Student Conduct Code.
To ensure that you acknowledge a collaboration and give credit where credit is due, we require that you place a collaboration statement at the beginning of every set of homework solutions you submit. That collaboration statement should say either:
"I worked on the homework assignment alone, using only course materials."
or
"In order to help learn course concepts, I worked on this homework with [give the names of the people you worked with], discussed homework topics and issues with [provide names of people], and/or consulted related material that can be found at [cite any other materials not provided as course materials for CS 1331 that assisted your learning]."
For quizzes and exams, all work must be your own. Cheating off of another person's test or quiz is unethical and unacceptable. Cheating off of anyone else's work is a direct violation of the GT Academic Honor Code, and will be dealt with accordingly.
Use of any previous semester exams to help studying is allowed for this course; however, I remind you that while they may serve as examples for you, they are not guidelines for any tests, quizzes, homework, projects, or any other coursework that may be assigned during the semester.
Excused Absences
From time to time, circumstances such as an excused school absence (athletics, competition, conference, etc.), an illness/sickness, a family emergency, or other such circumstances may prevent a student from completing an exam, quiz, or assigned work. In the event of one of these circumstances, the student is responsible for contacting the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Students as soon as possible to report the issue, conflict, or emergency, providing dated documentation and requesting assistance in notifying their instructors. You should NOT go to your instructor first with such documentation. Instead, documentation such as medical forms will be handled confidentially within the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Students and their office will inform a decision as to whether communication with instructional faculty is appropriate.
If this can all be done beforehand then you should get written confirmation of the approved absence from the Registrar's office and notify the instructor prior to the day(s) of the absence. Clearly, some circumstances such as medical emergencies do not allow for that, so they can be handled after the fact.
If a student is going to miss an exam and this can be coordinated with the instructor ahead of time, then it may be possible to schedule an alternative make-up exam. We will try to do so in the 1-2 days following the exam. If that can't be worked out or isn't possibe, alternatively, we will instead substitute the student's score/percentage on the final exam for the missed exam's score/percentage. Note that this does not mean that anyone can substitute the final exam grade for another exam's grade or simply decide not to take an exam. The policy only applies for legitimate excused absences that cannot be made up in the two school days following the exam.
Academic Integrity
Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on trust, academic integrity, and honor. Students are expected to act according to the highest ethical standards. For information on Georgia Tech's Academic Honor Code, please visit http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/policies/honor-code/. Unless otherwise noted (for example, the HW collaboration policy described above), all work should be strictly your own. Any student suspected of cheating or plagiarizing on a quiz, exam, or assignment will be reported to the Office of Student Integrity, who will investigate the incident and identify the appropriate penalty for violations. If you have any questions about these policies, just ask your instructor.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with learning needs that require special accommodation, contact the Office of Disability Services at (404) 894-2563 or http://disabilityservices.gatech.edu/, as soon as possible, to make an appointment to discuss your special needs and to obtain an accommodations letter. Please also e-mail me as soon as possible in order to set up a time to discuss your learning needs.
Student Resources
General list of resources for students at Georgia Tech.