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. Insufficiently good reports can 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. We are not just interested in sufficiently correct and efficient code, but also in explanations and experiments of the submitted code, hence a report is also required for each assignment.
Help Sessions
The objective of a help session is only for the assistants to help you prepare an acceptable report for 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 normally not used as an initial score), of homework reports 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 report during that meeting and possibly increasing the score by one point. For schedule reasons, there is no grading session for Assignment 3, and hence the initial score is the final score.
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 reports can be found on the Student Portal; more detailed comments can 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![]() ![]() |
Thu 10 Sep | none | none | none | none | none | none |
Assignment 1![]() |
Thu 17 Sep | Mon 21 Sep | Wed 23 Sep | Thu 24 Sep at 18:00 | Wed 30 Sep | Thu 01 Oct | none |
Assignment 2![]() |
Thu 01 Oct | Mon 05 Oct | Wed 07 Oct | Thu 08 Oct at 18:00 | Tue 13 Oct | Mon 26 Oct | none |
Project Part 1![]() |
Mon 26 Oct | Tue 27 Oct | Wed 28 Oct | Thu 29 Oct at 18:00 | Wed 04 Nov | Fri 06 Nov | none |
Project Part 2![]() |
Fri 06 Nov | Mon 09 Nov | Wed 11 Nov | Thu 12 Nov at 18:00 | Wed 18 Nov | Thu 19 Nov | none |
Project Part 3![]() |
Thu 19 Nov | Mon 23 Nov | Wed 25 Nov | Thu 26 Nov at 18:00 | Wed 02 Dec | Thu 03 Dec | none |
Assignment 3![]() |
Thu 03 Dec | Tue 08 Dec | Thu 10 Dec | Fri 11 Dec at 18:00 | no session | no session | Fri 08 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.
Until midnight of Sunday 13 September 2015, 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 to the assistants by that deadline. If you are fine with a randomly assigned teammate, then declare this by email to the assistants by that hard deadline. All students who have done neither of those actions by that deadline will be considered to have dropped the course. You can advertise your search for a partner using the "Team Partner Search" option of the "Forums" menu at the Student Portal of CP.
Teams may change between homeworks: permission will be granted, as long as you inform the assistants in advance and the total number of teams does not increase.
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 Uppsala University 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.
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 as labour-intensive, or that they are all 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 |
4 | 11 <= x <= 13 |
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
There is normally no complementation opportunity as the full budgeted time of the teachers is allocated within the two periods where the course takes place: with three help sessions and one grading session per assignment, there is a lot of support available for submitting and improving a report that clears the low 20% threshold (not 50% like in other courses!) per homework, and for clearing the 50% threshold over all homeworks.
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 7 September 2015. The head teacher reserves the right to modify them at any moment, should special circumstances call for this.