CP Homeworks, Help Sessions, Grading Sessions, and Solution Sessions
Structure
For each of the 6 mandatory homeworks, the assistants supervise 3 help sessions (schedule
) for troubleshooting in the preparation of your reports. Each homework is worth 5 homework points, hence there is a maximum of 30 homework points to earn. Earned homework points are only valid during this academic year. Insufficiently good solutions are to be defended orally to the assistants in scheduled grading sessions. Solutions are discussed by the assistants in solution sessions.
The homeworks consist of 3 independent assignments and one project, divided into 3 parts. The homework questions will appear below in due time.
PhD students can skip the assignments (but are highly encouraged to do them nevertheless, though solo) and exam if they do a sufficiently sophisticated solo project (replacing the standard project), possibly in connection with their PhD research: contact the head teacher.
Homeworks
The main objective of homeworks is to exercise the theoretical knowledge gained in the lectures, and thereby also to help prepare for the exam.
Help Sessions
The objective of a help session is only for the assistants to help you prepare acceptable solutions to the homework with the closest upcoming deadline. The homework problems will normally be published at least a week prior to the first help session. Also, the necessary course material will normally have been presented in lectures at least a week prior to the first help session. You are thus able and even strongly encouraged to prepare your solution as far as possible until the help sessions and to attend them, in order to make best use of that reserved time span of personal attention by the assistants.
Note that no further tutoring on lecture topics, such as exercises whose solutions are given or to be handed in at the end of the session, will be performed by the assistants at the help sessions.
Initial Grading
The initial scores, in the set {0,1,2,4,5} (note that 3 is not used as an initial score), of homework solutions will normally be determined by the late afternoon on the day before the grading session for that homework. Towards this, the assistants run the submitted programs (if any) on a grading test suite and examine the reports. Our expectations are higher than at the exam, as the aims are to learn something and to prepare for the exam.
Grading Sessions
The objective of a grading session is to determine the final scores for the submitted report for the homework of the previous deadline. Each team with an initial score of 1 or 2 (but not 0, 4, or 5) will be given an appointment with one of the assistants during the grading session, toward defending its solution during that meeting and possibly increasing the score by one point. For schedule reasons, there is no grading session for Assignment 3.
Appointment times are strict: scores cannot be changed in case of a missed appointment, but they will not be shrunk to zero either. Exceptions must be negotiated in due time during work hours with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure.
Solution Sessions
The objective of a solution session is only for the assistants to discuss acceptable solutions to the homework of the previous deadline. No code will be handed out. The first five solution sessions are merged with the initial help sessions to the next homework. For schedule reasons, there is no solution session for Assignment 3.
Comments on the submitted solutions can be found on the print-outs that the assistants make, and can also be obtained orally from the assistants upon appointment.
Note that no further tutoring on lecture topics, such as exercises whose solutions are given or to be handed in at the end of the session, will be performed by the assistants at the solution sessions.
Important Dates
| Homework | Help 1 | Help 2 | Help 3 | Deadline | Grading | Solution | Deadline 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gecode & LaTeX primers |
Thu 04 Sep | none | none | none | none | none | none |
| Assignment 1 |
Thu 18 Sep | Mon 22 Sep | Wed 24 Sep | Thu 25 Sep at 18:00 | Wed 01 Oct | Thu 02 Oct | none |
| Assignment 2 |
Thu 02 Oct | Mon 06 Oct | Wed 08 Oct | Thu 09 Oct at 18:00 | Wed 15 Oct | Mon 27 Oct | none |
| Project Part 1 |
Mon 27 Oct | Tue 28 Oct | Wed 29 Oct | Thu 30 Oct at 18:00 | Wed 05 Nov | Fri 07 Nov | none |
| Project Part 2 |
Fri 07 Nov | Mon 10 Nov | Wed 12 Nov | Thu 13 Nov at 18:00 | Wed 19 Nov | Thu 20 Nov | none |
| Project Part 3 |
Thu 20 Nov | Tue 25 Nov | Thu 27 Nov | Thu 27 Nov at 18:00 | Wed 03 Dec | Thu 04 Dec | none |
| Assignment 3 |
Thu 04 Dec | Mon 08 Dec | Wed 10 Dec | Thu 11 Dec at 18:00 | no session | no session | Fri 09 Jan at 18:00 |
Submission and Deadlines
All homework reports, with imposed structure (LaTeX source at Resources), must be submitted electronically via the Student Portal of CP, whose clock may be different from yours. Submission deadlines are hard. Exceptions must be negotiated in due time during work hours with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure. Grading will only start after a deadline, so you can submit multiple times until then.
The last homework, Assignment 3, has two deadlines: if you submit by the first deadline, which is before the exam, then you will know your final (= initial) grade to Assignment 3 before the exam, else it suffices to submit by the second deadline.
Teams
For pedagogic and resource reasons, every homework report must be prepared by a team of 2 students, both being first-time students or both being non-first-time students of this course. No permission will ever be granted for teams of 3 students. Teams may change between homeworks, without seeking permission, as long as the total number of teams does not increase.
Until midnight of Sunday 7 September 2014, you can declare a team using the "Register Homework Teams" option of the "Group Divisions" menu at the Student Portal of CP; if you are not on the Student Portal yet, then you can declare your team by email. After that hard deadline, the remaining students will be randomly divided into teams. You can advertise your search for a partner using the "Team Partner Search" option of the "Forums" menu at the Student Portal of CP.
Only one teammate of each team should submit a report for each homework deadline.
An exception for solo work must be negotiated in due time, during work hours, with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure. The homeworks are calibrated somewhat smaller for those students. Such an exception is only valid for the homework(s) it was negotiated for.
Ethics
The legislation on cheating (summary) of the IT department will be rigorously applied, without exceptions. This includes using a public repository (such as github) for code management within your team. We reserve the right to use plagiarism detection tools and point out that they are extremely powerful.
We assume that by submitting a homework report you are implicitly certifying that it is solely the work of your team, except where explicitly stated otherwise, and that each teammate can individually explain any part of the report from the moment of its submission.
We reserve the right to give different grades to the teammates of a team, depending on the performance at the grading session.
Please report any problems within a team to the head teacher, who will handle the case in confidence, in the best interest of both teammates, keeping the ethics dimension in mind.
Yellow and Red Cards
We reserve the right to close an eye to minor infractions of the rules spelled out on this page, but a yellow card is given in that case, meaning that this is your last warning. The need for a second yellow card results in a red card, meaning that no further homework report by that student will be graded. Major infractions result in an immediate red card.
Expected Effort
The whole course is worth 10 higher-education credits (ECTS credits), which translates under Swedish university law into an expected 267 hours of work on this course for the average student, including attending the scheduled events (totalling about 65 hours, including the exam), reading and understanding the material, as well as preparing and defending your homework reports. In other words, and since the homeworks are also meant to help prepare for the exam, the 6 homeworks may well be calibrated to take an average of 30 hours for the average student, for each teammate! This does not clash with other courses you are taking, as university studies are legally defined to take 800 hours of work per semester, and all courses you are taking at the same time are normally calibrated to reach that total.
Historically, it seems that Assignment 1 is (by far) the most time consuming, so do not think that the five subsequent homeworks are equally labour-intensive.
Need Help?
See Help & FAQ.
Grades & Credits
The 3 assignments are worth 2 higher-education credits (ECTS credits). The grade scale is as follows, if you get at least 1 (of 5) homework points on each assignment and have a total of x (of 15) homework points on the 3 assignments:
| Grade | Condition |
|---|---|
| 5 | 14 <= x <= 15 and you get at least 1 (of 5) points on each assignment |
| 4 | 11 <= x <= 13 and you get at least 1 (of 5) points on each assignment |
| 3 | 08 <= x <= 10 and you get at least 1 (of 5) points on each assignment |
The 3 project parts are worth 3 higher-education credits (ECTS credits). The grade scale is as in the table above, if you get at least 1 (of 5) homework points on each project part and have a total of x (of 15) homework points on the 3 project parts.
Failure
The lecture contents, homework questions, submission rules, or head teacher of a course can change from one academic year to another, and the incremental completion of homework duties over the years is not a student right: it is best to complete (the homeworks of) a course the year it is taken. The head teacher stopped granting that right (see the previous item) as the administration thereof turned out to be more time-consuming than the alternative.
Contract
These rules are effective as of 1 September 2014. The head teacher reserves the right to modify them at any moment, should special circumstances call for this.