• Grades will be determined from
• Quizzes and Tests (described in a separate section below), and
• Lab assignments
• Quizzes and tests will be graded by skills demonstrated, and their scores will be tabulated throughout the term as described below in the section titled "Tests."
• Lab assignments will be graded for
• Correctness (do they work)
• Appropriateness (do they demonstrate requested skills)
• Documentation (can the TA easily determine answers to correctness and appropriateness criteria)
• Course grades will be minimum of the lab and test/quiz grades.    

1. Types
1. Midterms: at least one
1. Dates will be announced in class at least two weeks ahead of time.
2. Generally allotted 40 to 80 minutes
3. "Make-up" - see policy on skipped labs and missed exams below
2. Final exam: date and time are specified by the university.
3. Quizzes
1. Generally unannounced, generally focus on recently studied topics, but may contain topics studied earlier
2. Short: Generally 10-20 minutes
3. May contained timed portions on topics students are instructed to memorize in lecture (for example, editor commands, binary encoding of hexadecimal digits, and powers of 2 up to 2¹⁰).
4. May not be "made up"
2. Multiple skills may be measured by the same test question  For example, if a question requires students to construct a finite state machine and implement it C, assembly, and machine language, each of the following may be independently assessed
1. Appropriateness and completeness of state machine design and representation
2. Quality and completeness of C code (algorithm, variable and function naming, understandability)
3. Translation of various types of C statements into assembly language (all scored separately)
4. Quality and completeness of assembly language code (including appropriate use of addressing modes, array indexing, operand order)
5. Accuracy of machine language representation (opcode, addressing modes, relative branch offsets...)
3.  To the extent that it is practical, useful competency (generally a binary value) for distinct skills  will be assessed independently   
1. Thus, if an exam with four questions measures ten skills, ten measurements will be computed.
2. A single problem may provide opportunity to demonstrate all or most of the skills being measured.
3. A skill not demonstrated by any answer provided by a student due to not providing complete and correct answers to all problems will be assessed as not meeting the threshold of useful competency.   
4. It is possible that all skills measured by a particular test will be demonstrated in multiple problems.
5. Tests are designed to require substantially less time than allotted.  Therefore not completing an exam within the allotted time may be an indication of weak understanding worthy of discussion with the instructor. 
4. Notes on test-taking strategy
1. If short of time - it is not generally advantageous to partially answer multiple questions in a manner that demonstrates the same skills..      . 
5. The grade for an exam or quiz will correspond to the fraction of skills in which useful competency is demonstrated.  Generally
1. 100% corresponds to an A+ (4.3 on a 4-pt scale)
2. 50% corresponds to an F (zero on a 4-pt scale) 
3. Conversion back to 4-pt scale: Grade = (f-0.5) * 8.6 where f is the fraction described above 
6. As in life, all exams are cumulative. 
1. If test (midterm/quiz/final) T1 occurs before test T2, a skill measured in T1 may also be assessed in T2.
7. Overall test grade: computed by tabulated skills
1. Each test (midterm/quiz/final) measures some set of skills
2. Many skills may be measured at multiple times during the semester
3. Aggregate test grade is computed based upon skills demonstrated during the semester
1. Later measurements dominate earlier 
2. Typically, if 3 or more measurements are taken for the same skill, the assessed level will be computed from the last three measurements.    

Labs

 In addition to skill assessment, each lab will receive two distinct overall scores for

• Documentation quality
• Implementation quality

Documentation is not optional and may require substantial effort.  Documentation scores reflecs how easy it was to understand their submission such as indicating any non-obvious aspect of your submissionsuch as:

• How to compile the submitted program.
• How to run the submitted program (what input is needed?  how specified?)
• What algorithms/data structures were used
• How the program works
• Which features function correctly and which do not
• Quality of Makefile (proper files included/not included; clean works appropriately; build works appropriately; appropriate modularization)
• Variable and function names (well chosen, consistent naming) 

• Appropriateness of algorithm
• Appropriateness of modularization
• Code quality (is organization among files, functions, and data structures reasonable?)
• Program works

• Deduct 1 point for each minor weakness
• Deduct 2 points for each significant weakness
• A score of 5 will be assigned if all grading categories are of "professional quality."
• Neither score can be reduced below zero.
• The first lab may be simple enough to not include a documentation grade

Homeworks from lecture course

• Generally provide practice for recently taught skill to be measured in an upcoming test and quiz.
• Collected only at the beginning of class when due.
• May be solved collaboratively by students; attribution of credit to collaborators must be provided.
• Minor impact on grade.

Can I skip a lab or midterm exam?

Late policy