I210: Information Infrastructure I (Intro to Programming)

Instructor: Larry Yaeger

Grading Policy for Labs and Tests

In general, grading starts with a perfect score, then varying numbers of points are deducted for errors of different types. Some errors are counted every time they occur, some are counted only once, even across multiple programs. Sometimes this is at the discretion of the grader.

The code reviews you receive (visible in Oncourse) will provide point deductions marked as [A-#], where 'A' is one of a short set of codes indicating the nature of the problem and '#' is the number of points to be deducted, plus a succinct description of the problem and its solution. For example:

whatever.c

[F-1] line 1 – you should have a comment at the top that says what the program does

[L-5] line 15 – you should have tested for >= instead of >

[S-10] line 21 – using “primt” instead of “print” prevented the program from running

If '#' is zero, that means no points are being deducted, and this is just a warning. The default numbers of points deducted for different problems are shown below, but occasionally you will see different point values, based on the severity of the error (or lack thereof). Point values may also be adjusted according to the number of problems in a particular assignment.

BE SURE TO CAREFULLY READ THE REVIEWS OF YOUR CODE YOU RECEIVE ONCE IT HAS BEEN GRADED. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHY POINTS WERE DEDUCTED, AND EVEN A PERFECT SCORE MAY COME WITH SOME WARNINGS YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO.

The alphabetic error codes and nominal point values are:

F - Formatting problem (1 points each, maximum of 5 points)

L - Logical error (5 points each)

S - Syntax error (10 points each)

Here are more complete definitions of the error categories:

• Formatting problems: These correspond to badly formatted code and output. At the discretion of the grader, a small number of points may be deducted for poorly structured code (even if it works), poorly named variables, output from the code that fails to match that specified in the assignment, etc.

• Logical errors: These are run-time programming errors, causing the code to not perform as specified in the assignment. There is no maximum.

• Syntax errors: These are error that prevent the code from even running, producing syntax error output from Python. There is no maximum.

For more information, contact: Larry Yaeger