Grading Policies

Grade

Your grade is composed of the following components:

Additional Participation Credit (up to 5%)

This may be earned by participating in lecture & online discussions, scribing lectures (3-credit students only) and by reporting mistakes in the lecture notes or scribe notes.

General Rules

• After grades are released for any homework set or exam you have two weeks in order to clarify any misgivings you may have about the grade you received. Once two weeks have passed, the assigned grade is considered accepted and no further complaints will be considered.
• The grade curve (if required) will be separate for 3-credit and 4-credit students, and will not include the participation grade i.e. it is possible to earn 105% grade.

Homework

The homeworks will consist of a combination of machine problems and written exercises to be submitted on the course relate website.

Submitted solutions to the machine problems must be written in Python, using only standard libraries (numpy / scipy). We will sometimes block libraries as required.

Solutions to the written problems must be submitted as LaTeX typeset PDF’s. You may use WYSIWYG latex editors such as LyX if you are unfamiliar with LaTeX. Otherwise, we encourage you to use the homework template for LaTeX. Each problem requires a separate pdf submission.

For each problem, a separate pdf submission with names of all the collaborators of this problem is required. You are responsible to make sure the submitted file matches the correct problem in RELATE. Please use RELATE's preview function to check before your submission, incorrectly submitted file will result in 0 grade, no exception.

For HW1 only, if you submitted all individual questions on time but didn't click the final green submission button, please come to any TA's office hour and we will track your records and manually handle this issue. The penalty is to consume addtional 72 late hours or make your remaining late hour to 0, whatever comes applicable.

The due dates are shown on the start page of each homework set and in the class calendar ( To be updated soon! ).

Late policy

You have 96 hours of "credit" that you can use any way you want. You don't need to come to us and ask to submit the homework late. Just submit it when you are ready; we will accumulate your late time and allow up to 96 hours for the whole semester.

Late submission will not be accepted once homework solutions are released online. Typically, we will wait for up to 96 hours after due date before we release the solutions. However, when there is an exam coming up, we may want to release solutions earlier. This means that you may not be able to use all 96 hours of credit on assignments that are due near exams. When we release these assignments, we will inform you if late submission is not accepted or will only be accepted for up to a limited time.

Do let us know if there are extreme situations where this lenient policy isn't satisfactory.

Grading

You get exactly one submission per homework set. In particular, this means that:

• After you click "Submit Assignment" in the top right corner, you will not be able to make changes to your work.

• Homework sets expire automatically at (or soon after) the deadline. If you would like to make use of your late hours, you must select "At deadline: Do not submit session for grading". Otherwise, the homework set will automatically be submitted at the deadline.

Academic integrity

Feel free to discuss the assignment with each other in general terms, and to search the Web for general guidance (not for complete solutions). All solutions should be written up individually. If you make substantial use of some information from outside sources, be sure to acknowledge the sources in your solution. In particular, please acknowledge all other students you worked with on the homework/projects.

We will follow the departmental honor code policy.

Exams

There will be two midterms this semester. The exams will be given during class time. There will not be a final.

• Exams must be taken during the class time for which they are scheduled except in cases of severe emergency (e.g., loss of life or limb). Examples of events that do not qualify as emergencies include (but are not limited to): transportation problems, conflict with work schedule, important family vacation, or computer problems.

• For any type of foreseeable absence, documentation must be received by the instructor at least one week before the exam to be acceptable, at which point the instructor will determine whether a make-up exam will be allowed.

  Make-up exams are not allowed without proper documentation as described above or for university-approved activities. Make-up exams are not allowed for any type of unexcused absences, including missing class to study for a test, oversleeping, not being ready to take the exam, or having to work at an outside job.

  For health-related or other absence because of an emergency, the instructor must be notified at least two hours prior to the exam to receive consideration for a make-up exam, but preferably as early as possible. An hour before the exam at the latest, the instructor will provide guidance on whether a make-up exam will be allowed.

• No aids other than a writing utensil and paper are allowed in exams. In particular: If you are seen near a phone, MP3 player or other digital device (turned on or not--it does not matter) during an exam, you will receive a grade of zero for the exam.

• Only exams taken in accordance with these rules will receive credit. Any deviation from these rules will lead to the exam in question being assigned a grade of zero.

Conflict exams

Since exams are taken in class conflict exams will generally not be provided.

Accommodations

Please let Sanmi » know as soon as you can if you need special accommodations (extra time etc.) on exams. Thanks!

4-Credit

4-Credit students will need to scribe for a lecture and complete a literature review.

• Leture Scribing ( Sign up here )

  • Please sign up by Tuesday, September 5th at 12:30pm. If you do not sign up by this time, you will forfeit the fourth credit.

  • Please sign up for only one slot. This will ensure that whoever needs to scribe gets a slot.

  • If you have already signed up for scribing but end up dropping the class before your turn, please notify Ping-Ko ».

  • For four-credit students, if the sign-up sheet is full, please put your name in the waitlist at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If anyone drops, we will assign you a date for scribing and notify you.

  • Please use the LaTeX template. Scribing expectations are further elaborated upon in the template.

  • Example lecture scribe note

  • You will have one week from the lecture date to submit your scribe notes (PDF and LaTeX source). Failure to submit high-quality notes by the deadline may result in you forfeiting the fourth credit.

  • We reserve the right to send back the scribe notes if they need revision, after which you will be expected to turn in a set of revised notes. Note that delayed revisions may affect the fourth credit.

• Literature Review

  • Further details will be provided on the requirements of the literature review

The credit will be awarded as Pass/Fail. You will be given an Incomplete grade for the course if the scribe notes and the literature review are unsatisfactory.

Official results of whether the 4th credit is awarded will be released at the end of the semester.

Student responsibilities

Please read and understand the UIUC student code (link opens PDF).

In particular, make sure to read and understand Paragraph §1‑402. The rules there along with the rules in this tutorial form the foundation for making sure you and everyone else in the class receive a fair, transparent grade.