Department of Computer Science and Engineering
CSE 131 / 501N	Fall 2015

Grading Policy

Your semester score is computed as the following weighted average:

Participation

The videos and exercises you do on your own contain numerous points at which you are asked to complete and submit responses in the exercises folder of your repository. Your earn participation points for the online course by submitting these responses.

• You don't have to get every response right to earn participation points.
• However, you must show by your responses that you are following
• These exercises must be attempted and committed as you go through the modules. The participation points are captured after each module.

Quizzes

• Quizzes will be be posted online after all work for a given module has been submitted, and before any exam containing material that would be tested by the quiz.

  We use Google Docs to administer quizzes. The information you supply about yourself, in particular your WUSTL key, must be correct or the quiz will not be counted.

• Each quiz has a completion date and time. You must complete the quiz by then to receive credit.
• Quizzes are graded robotically
• The results of your quiz are returned in your repository, in the gradedquizzes folder.

  As usual, you must update to see changes made externally to your repository.

• We will automatically drop your lowest quiz grade.
• No make-up quizzes will be given.
• Some advice:

  • You should do these quizzes on your own, without any help.
  • For the quizzes, you can use any resources, online or otherwise, that you need for the quiz.
  • However, on an exam you will be limited to a single two-sided sage page.
  • It would be wise of you to note what you needed from your resources for the quiz so you can include that on your exam sage page.

Studios

You earn credit for studios simply by participation. The studios are an important component of how material is learned in this course. They are essentially a substitute for lecture, except that you learn actively by doing rather than by listening.

At the end of each studio session, you are cleared by a TA and your participation is automatically recorded.

• You are allowed one unexcused studio absence without penalty.
• Any excused absence can be made up with the TAs during their office hours. Prior permission is required from the instructor for the absence to be considered excused.
• Any other studio absence drops your overall studio score to zero, which essentially lowers your final grade in the course by one letter.

Exams

The course divides into thirds and an exam will be given after each third. The dates for these will be shown on the course calendar and syllabus.

• Each module includes practice problems and a quiz so you can prepare for the exams.
• A review session will be conducted before each exam.
• There is no comprehensive final exam for this course.
• However, the third exam will be given during the scheduled final exam period for this course.

Labs

Each module of this course has a lab assignment. Most labs are graded by the demo you perform in front of a TA. The TA will inspect your code, watch your demo, and pass you on that lab assignment if both are satisfactory.

We reserve the right to inspect your labs for style, and to refuse credit for labs do not meet the style standards for this course. In such cases you may resubmit the work as a late lab (see below).

Labs are due as posted on the course calendar and syllabus.

We realize that you are taking other courses, and that you may occasionally need more time to complete a lab. You are given a certain number of late-lab coupons as described in the late policy, and these are spent automatically when you demo a lab after its regular deadline and before its late deadline.

Once you are out of coupons, no other late labs will count toward your lab score.

Your lab score is the fraction of labs you have completed as compared to those assigned. Thus, your lab score will be 100% if all labs are completed as described above.

Extensions

While the labs test your basic knowledge of the course material, the extensions serve both to reinforce each module specifically but also to integrate techinques between the modules.

Extensions are demonstrated like labs, with a TA evaluating both your code and its functionality. Please read the following carefully concerning how extension points are counted.

• Each extension is worth a certain number of points, as shown on the extension's page and in this table .
• Points for the extensions you successfully demo accumulate and count towards your extension score, subject to the constraints articulated below. If you meet the contraints, let's call the associated points valid.
• Your fractional (or percentage) score for extensions, overall, is simply the sum of your valid extension points, taken out of 100.
• The maximum number of points you can earn for extensions is 100 points. Extra points do not count toward any aspect of your grades for this course.
• The validity of your extension points is associated with turning in a certain number of points by deadlines that are shown on the course calendar.
• The calendar will divide your extension points into n groups. If we number the deadlines 1, 2, …, n, then i/n points are due at the i^th deadline.

  For example, if there are 3 deadlines, 1/3 of your points are due at the first deadline, 2/3 are due by the second deadline, and all of your points are due by the third deadline.

• Important! At each deadline, the maximum number of points you can earn is limited by how many you have at that deadline. Each deadline i limits the total points you can earn for extensions to n/i the points you have at the i^th deadline.

  Continuing the example, you will be awarded no more than 3 times the points you have at your first deadline, 3/2 the points you have at your second deadline, and 3/3 the points you have at the third deadline.

• No valid points can be earned after the final deadline.

Extensions can be submitted at any of the following times:

• At the time you demo/submit the module related to the extension.
• During any of the extensions fests that are held during the semester. These are shown on the course calendar and syllabus.

How are grades assigned?

What if I feel my work was not graded properly?

It is your responsibility to check your grades and make an appeal, if appropriate, in the alloted time period.

• A request of this nature will trigger a regrade of all aspects of the work associated with that grade. It is possible this review will result in a lower, not higher score. So proceed carefully.
• If the work in question was of a written nature, the work must be submitted with no alteration of the contents.
• A cover letter must be supplied that explains the nature of the reconsideration request.

Appeals made beyond the one-week consideration period will not be considered. Emails or piazza posts concerning regrades past the one-week consideration period will not be answered.