COMP1730/6730: Assessment

Quick Links#

Assessment scheme#

The 2018 Semester 1 course assessment consists of the following components:

5 small homework assignments. Combined, these are worth 20% of the final course mark. These will be due in semester weeks 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 (see schedule further down on this page). In addition to submitting the solution to each homework, students will be required to attend a lab session and answer questions about their submission.
1 larger assignment, accounting for 20% of the final course mark. This will be done over 3-4 weeks in the second half of the semester.
A mid-semester written exam, worth 20% of the final course mark. This is planned for semester week 6, but the date may be set differently by ANU central timetabling.
Two final exams, held during the end-of-semester exam period. This will be a written exam (worth 25% of the final course mark) and a programming exam (worth 15% of the final course mark).

The assessment scheme may be modified up to the end of semester week 2. After that, it is fixed to what is shown on this page.

Variation for COMP6730 (master) students#

Students in the master-level course (COMP6730) will have to answer some extra questions on each of the written exams. These extra questions are inteded to demonstrate a deeper conceptual and theoretical understanding.

Final mark#

Your final course mark is the sum of your marks on all assessment components. To pass COMP1730 you must score at least 50 out of 100 marks.

A supplementary exam will be offered only to those students who have a final mark of at least 45 out of 100, but less than 50 out of 100.

There will be no scaling of individual assessment components (such as a single homework). However, final marks are moderated in the examiners’ meeting and may be scaled as a result of this moderation.

Deferred exams and special consideration#

If you are unable to attend a scheduled assessment (such as an exam) because of serious illness or other misfortune, you can apply for deferred examination (that is, permission to sit the exam at another time) or special consideration.

Deferrals will be considered only for the exams (written exams and programming exam). For homeworks and assignment, students should instead apply for special consideration.

All applications are made on-line, through https://isis.anu.edu.au/.

For more information, see

Late assignments and extensions#

The homeworks and assignment will have a hard deadline. Submissions made after this deadline without an approved extension will receive zero marks. Extensions can only be granted in unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, and will require supporting documentation (e.g. serious illness supported by a medical certificate). Work and sporting commitments are not sufficient grounds for extensions.

Cheating#

The homeworks and assignment can be done in pairs. However, both students in a pair are fully responsible for the submitted solution, and should be able to explain every aspect of it. Collaboration between groups (including, of course, outright plagiarism), submitting solutions that you have found on the web, or enlisting others to work for you on assignments, are all forms of cheating, and will be reported. If you are found to have cheated, this will be recorded on all your future transcripts and further action may be taken in line with the severity of the offense and ANU policy.

Make sure that you have read and understood the ANU policy on academic honesty and plagiarism.

Homeworks#

Each homework assignment will be made available at the start of the week, and must be submitted by the indicated deadline. Deadlines are hard. Submissions made after the deadline without an approved extension will receive zero marks. If you want to apply for an extension, you must do so before the deadline. Extensions can only be granted in unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, and will require supporting documentation.

Homeworks will be submitted through the course wattle page. We will not consider files sent via email or any other means. It is your responsibility to make sure you submit the correct file. You can submit as many times as you want before the deadline, but please remember that we can only see the last submission that you made.

Homeworks can be done individually or in pairs. If you work together with another student, you must indicate this when you submit.

In addition to submitting the homework solution, you must attend the lab in the following week (as indicated in the schedule below) and answer some questions from the tutor about the assignment and your submission. If you work together with another student, both of you must attend your respective lab sessions, and both of you must be able to answer any question about it. To say “I don’t know, my labmate did that part” is not an acceptable excuse. It is not necessary that both of you are in the same lab group.

If you do not attend the lab or fail to answer the tutor’s questions, you can receive zero marks for the homework assignment, regardless of what you submitted. If, due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control (for example, illness or accident), you are not able to attend your lab session, you can apply for special consideration, following the normal procedure. Remember that you must do this as early as possible, and that you will be required to provide supporting documentation.

Note that although we give you a week to do each homework, these are small problems, and our aim is that they should only take 1-2 hours to complete, if you have followed the lectures and done the lab exercises for the week beforehand. If you start directly with the homework with no preparation, you will probably find it harder.

Homework assignment schedule#

Homework 1

Available from Monday the 26th of February.
Due date: 9am Monday the 5th of March.
Assessed in lab: During semester week 3 (March 5-9).
Worth: 2% of final mark.
Homework 2

Available from Monday the 5th of March.
Due date: 6pm Sunday the 11th of March.
Assessed in lab: During semester week 4 (March 12-16).
Worth: 3% of final mark.
Homework 3

Available from Monday the 12th of March.
Due date: 6pm Sunday the 18th of March.
Assessed in lab: During semester week 5 (March 19-23).
Worth: 5% of final mark.
Homework 4

Available from Monday the 26th of March.
Due date: 6pm Sunday the 15th of April.
Assessed in lab: During semester week 7 (April 16-20).
Worth: 5% of final mark.
Homework 5

Available from Monday the 16th of April.
Due date: 6pm Sunday the 22nd of April.
Assessed in lab: During semester week 8 (April 23-27).
Worth: 5% of final mark.

Assignment#

There will be one larger assignment. It will be available from semester week 8, and due in semester week 11 on Sunday, 20 May at 23:55 (11:55pm). This assignment is worth 20% of your final course mark.

The full specification for the assignment along with the data sets and other resources are available on the course Wattle site.

Just like with the homeworks the assignment deadline is hard. Submissions made after the deadline without an approved extension will receive zero marks. If you want to apply for an extension, you must do so before the deadline. Extensions can only be granted in unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, and will require supporting documentation. Since this is a group assignment, extensions only apply to the individual report of the group member who is affected, the code must still be submitted on time and all other group members must also submit their report by the deadline.

The assignment can be done individually or in groups of up to three people. If you intend to work together with another student, you must indicate this at the start of the assignment (a sign-up activity will be put on the course wattle page).

Written exams#

Written exams will mainly test your understanding of the python programming language by asking you to work out or explain what happens when a small piece of code is executed. There may also be some questions that ask you to write code, but generally there will be very little “programming on paper”.

Last year’s exams will be made available for revision purposes. Note, however, that the exams from last year include some material that we do not cover (or do not cover before the mid-semester break) this year. Of course this will not be on this year’s exams.

Mid-Semester Exam Details:

Date: Thursday 29 March 2018
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: 7-11 Barry Drive, Ground Floor
Duration: 120 minutes
Permitted Materials: One A4 page with handwritten notes on both sides.

You can find further details on the timetabling website.

Additional details about the venue, including maps, are available here.

Mid-Semester Exam Content:

The exam will be on all material up until the end of semester week 5. Approximately two thirds of the questions will be similar or identical to questions from previous years. The remainder of the questions will be drawn from the material in lectures, labs and quizzes.

Please note that the exam has previously been held in Week 7, so there may be some questions in past papers that we will not have covered by the end of week 5 - these will obviously not be included in the mid-semester exam this year.

Please also note that you should not limit your revision to past exam papers only.

Past Mid-Semester Exam Papers

2016 Semester 2 - Mid-Semester Exam

2017 Semester 2 - Mid-Semester Exam

2018 Semester 1 - Mid-Semester Exam

Final Written Exam Details:

Date: Wednesday 6 June 2018
Time: 2:30pm
Venue: Sports Hall
Duration: 180 minutes + 15 minutes reading time
Permitted Materials: One A4 page with handwritten notes on both sides.

You can find further details on the timetabling website.

Final Written Exam Content:

The exam will be on all material from the course. As with the mid-semester exam, approximately two thirds of the questions will be similar to questions from previous years. The remainder of the questions will be drawn from the material in lectures, labs and quizzes.

Please note that the course has changed somewhat from previous years. Questions on topics that we have not covered (such as abstract data types, classes, etc.) will obviously not be on the exam this year.

Please also note that you should not limit your revision to past exam papers only since there is also some new material this year that hasn’t been covered in past exams.

Past Final Written Exam Papers

2016 Semester 2 - Final Written Exam

2017 Semester 2 - Final Written Exam

Programming exam#

The programming exam will require you to solve a few small programming problems, similar in size and complexity to those you encounter in the homeworks in the first half of the course.

However, the exam will require you to solve them under exam conditions: you must work on your own (with no help from anyone), you will have limited time, and although you will be working on a computer you will have no internet access (so you will not be able to use Google, or forums such as Stack Exchange to find answers). You will be provided with a detailed description of the programming problems, and a testing framework (much like those you will see in the later homework problems).

Programming Exam Details:

Date: Friday 8 June 2018
Time: 9:30am
Venue: Varies depending on student surname
Duration: 90 minutes + 15 minutes reading time
Permitted Materials: One A4 page with handwritten notes on both sides.

You can find further details on the timetabling website.

Past Practical Exams

Since 2017 was the first year with a practical exam, there are not many past papers to use for revision purposes. To get a sense of the type of questions you may be asked, please refer to the following:

Lab 9: the exercises in lab 9 reflect the type of problems you may be asked to solve in the practical exam.
2018 sample questions - this is a set of sample questions that mirrors the format of this year’s programming examination.

Please also note that in addition to the question specification and the answer skeleton, you will also be provided with a set of tests for each question in the practical exam. These work in an identical fashion to the tests you were provided with for homework exercises 2-5. If you need to refamiliarise yourself with how these tests work, please do this before the exam.

You should also make sure you are familiar with the CECS lab environment, since you will not be able to use your own laptop for the programming exam.