Assessment scheme#

The 2019 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 at the end of semester weeks 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 (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 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.
  • A final exam held during the end-of-semester exam period, worth 40% of the final course mark The final exam may be in one or two parts, depending on scheduling and technical constraints.

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 exams. These extra questions are intended 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 take the assessment at another time).

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

For more information, see

If you have attended an assessment, but you think that due to some unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances (such as serious illness or other misfortune) you were unable to do as well as you would have done under normal circumstances, then you can apply for special consideration. The application is made on-line through https://isis.anu.edu.au/. Please note that special consideration will never result in a change of your mark for an individual assessment item. It may be taken into account when determining the final course mark, particularly if it is close to a boundary (such as pass/fail).

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 or other extra-curricular commitments are not sufficient grounds for extensions.

Return of marks and appeal of marks#

We endeavour to return assessment marks within two semester weeks of the final deadline (the due date for the assignment or the final lab group for homeworks).

Students have two weeks after a mark has been released to appeal a mark if you believe there has been a mistake. Once the two weeks have passed, your mark for the assessment item will be considered final.

Cheating#

The homeworks are individual. You must write your own homework submission, and you are expected to be able to explain every aspect of it. The assignment can be done in a small group (up to three students).

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.

Each student in this course is expected to be able to explain and defend any submitted assessment item. The course convener can conduct or initiate an additional interview about any submitted assessment item for any student.

If there is a significant discrepancy between different forms of assessment, (for example, homework and examinations) it may be treated as a case of suspected academic misconduct.

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. No submissions made after the deadline without an approved extension will be accepted. 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. If you do not submit the homework in time you may still gain partial marks from the in-lab homework assessment, though never more than 50% of the total homework mark.

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 that you know how to submit through wattle and that 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.

In addition to submitting the homework solution, you must attend the lab indicated in the schedule below and answer some questions from the tutor about the assignment and your submission.

If you do not attend the lab or fail to answer the tutor’s questions, you will 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 deferred assessment, 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 1 March 2019
    Due date: 11:55pm, Sunday 10 March 2019
    Assessed in lab: During Semester Week 3 (11-15 March)
    Worth: 2% of final mark.

  • Homework 2

    Available 8 March 2019
    Due date: 11:55pm, Sunday 17 March 2019
    Assessed in lab: During Semester Week 4 (18-22 March)
    Worth: 3% of final mark.

  • Homework 3

    Available 15 March 2019
    Due date: 11:55pm, Sunday 24 March 2019
    Assessed in lab: During Semester Week 5 (25-29 March)
    Worth: 5% of final mark.

  • Homework 4

    Available 5 April 2019
    Due date: 11:55pm, Sunday 28 April 2019
    Assessed in lab: During Semester Week 8 (29 April - 3 May)
    Worth: 5% of final mark.

  • Homework 5

    Available 26 April 2019
    Due date: 11:55pm, Sunday 5 May 2019
    Assessed in lab: During Semester Week 9 (6 - 10 May)
    Worth: 5% of final mark.

Assignment#

There is one larger (“project”) assignment. Due to the late release of the major assignment, the due date has been extended to 11:55pm on Tuesday the 28th of May for all students (the Tuesday in Week 12). This assignment is worth 20% of your final course mark.

The assignment specification is available on the course wattle page.

Part of the assignment can be done individually or in groups of up to three students. If you intend to work together with others, you must indicate this at the start of the assignment (a sign-up activity is available on the course wattle page). The assignment has an individual component which must still be completed and submitted by each student personally.

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.

Mid-semester exam#

The mid-semester exam is scheduled for Wednesday the 3rd of April (that is, Wednesday in week 6, the last week before the break). The exam will take place in computer labs in the CSIT building. Because there is not enough lab space for all students to sit the exam at the same time, it will run in two sessions: the first starting at 6.00pm and the second starting at 8.00pm. The exam time is 15 minutes reading time and 90 minutes writing time.

You have been allocated to a specific time and a specific lab room. You should have received an email from the timetabling office with this information. If you have not, then you should contact the student administration office or the timetabling office directly to inquire why. We can not change your exam time or room. If you want it changed, you have to contact the timetabling office directly.

The mid-semester exam will include everything that we have covered in the course (lectures and labs) up to the end of week 5. It will have a mix of small programming problems (similar to the homework problems, and some of the lab exercises) and questions that require a written answer. Note that _the format of this exam is different from the mid-semester and final exams in previous years, although the type of questions and approximate level of difficulty will be similar.

The mid-semester exam is worth 20% of the final course mark.

Exam Instructions

2018 Semester 2 - Mid-Semester Exam Paper

The mid-semester examination paper is here:

2019 Semester 1 - Mid-Semester Exam Paper

The test files for the 2019 Semester 1 Mid Sem paper are here:

Final exam#

The final exam is scheduled for Monday the 17th of June at 2:00pm. The exam will take place in computer labs in the CSIT and HN buildings.

As usual, you should have received an email from the examinations office directing you to the specific room and time of your exam. If you have any questions about or problems with the scheduling of the exam, you should contact the examinations office.

The format of the exam will be the same as the mid-semester exam. That is, it will have a mix of code understanding questions, questions that require you to show understanding of and apply general principles (such as code quality, abstraction, data analysis) and programming problems. The exam is 3 hours of writing time plus 15 minutes of reading time. You are not allowed to bring any material (text book, notes or other things) into the exam. Scrap paper will be provided. Like in the mid-semester exam, you will have access to resources from the course website, including lecture notes, labs, and the text book, but not to any other web sites, and not to your normal home directory. Apart from this, the exam environment will be the same as the normal lab environment; in particular, you will be able to use the usual python IDEs (such as spyder, pycharm, idle).

The exam covers the entire course (that is, everything that we have covered in the first and second half of the semester). For examples of questions and problems that are representative of what you may find on this exam, you can look at:

The final examination is worth 40% of your course mark.

The preamble to the 2019, Semester 1 examination can be found here:

Supplementary and deferred exam#

Details of the supplementary and deferred examinations will be made available during the course.

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