Grading
Computation of the Final Grade
These are the main components of this course:
- Homeworks (mostly weekly): 30%.
- Two midterm exams (late February and early April, in class): 20% each.
- A comprehensive final exam: 30%.
On logistics:
- Homeworks: (roughly) weekly, until April. The last homework will
consist of writing a document designing a system; you will have 3-4 weeks
to work on it, and it will be worth one third of the total homework points.
More details on this later in the semester.
- Late homework policy:
- 0-24 hours: subtract 10%
- 24-48 hours: subtract 25%
- 48-72 hours: subtract 50%
- after 72 hours: subtract 100%
Now, since I understand that sometimes there are legitimate
reasons that might prevent you from completing a homework on time,
in the computation of your final grade, I will drop the worst homework
for each person. These are the only accomodations I will
make on the subject.
Academic Integrity
As with all other classes at Cornell, you are expected to maintain a
high level of ethical standards and integrity in this course. This means
that all work you submit must be the result of your own individual effort.
You may discuss homework problems with other students in the class, but
you may not collaborate on the actual writing of the problem sets or
development of solutions. Under no circumstances would it be acceptable
for two or more students to turn in substantially similar answers to a
homework problem, or to have possession of each others' homeworks. It
is your responsibility to protect your work from unauthorized access.
Everyone with whom you discussed the homework set must be cited on the
submitted homeworks. No part of the homework may be copied from or be
based on solution sets on the web - also keep in mind that the solution
sets on the web are often incomplete and incorrect.
Any violations of the academic integrity code will be penalized according
to the Cornell Academic Integrity Policy, and may result in failure in the
course, suspension, or expulsion from the university.