Assessment scheme#

The 2022 Semester 1 course assessment consists of the following components:

  • 5 small homework assignments. Combined, these are worth 15% of the final course mark. These are due at 9am Monday in semester weeks 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 (see schedule further down on this page). In addition to submitting the solution to each homework, students are required to attend their scheduled lab session in those weeks to discuss their submission.
  • 1 larger assignment, accounting for 35% of the final course mark. This will be done over 3 weeks in the second half of the semester.
  • A final exam held during the end-of-semester exam period, worth 50% of the final course mark. The final exam may be in one or two parts, depending on scheduling and technical constraints.

Note that any submitted work may be subject to an additional oral examination. If the course conveners deem the outcome of the oral exam to be unsatisfactory, the assessment mark may change and further action may be taken if appropriate.

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 different or extra questions in the final exam. They may also have an additional question to answer on the project assignment. These different/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 COMP1730/6730 you must score at least 50 out of 100 marks.

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

Generally, 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 examination 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 a specific 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 have a hard deadline. Submissions made after this 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 (e.g. serious illness supported by a medical certificate). Work or other extra-curricular commitments are not sufficient grounds for extensions.

Because of the in-lab component of the assessment of the homework assignments, we cannot give an extension beyond a few days (up to the day of the lab that week). If you believe you have grounds for a longer extension than that, you should apply for deferral instead.

Return of marks and appeal of marks#

We aim 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). However, it is not always possible to achieve this aim.

We do not remark exams (or any other assessments). What we will do is correct errors in marking. An error is one of two things:

  1. The question has a unique, unambiguous answer, and the marking is not consistent with that answer. (For example, if the answer to a question is “no” and you have answered “yes” and we’ve given you marks for that, then that is clearly an error.) Any question that involves describing, explaining, or where the marker has to make a judgement of the quality and/or clarity of your answer is by definition not unambiguous.
  2. Your answer is identical to that of another student, but we have marked the two of you differently.

In either case, you must demonstrate that an error has occurred (for example, by providing the name and UID of the student whose answer is identical to yours).

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.

Collaboration (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 transcripts and further action may be taken in line with the severity of the offense and ANU policy. In serious cases you may even have your enrollment at ANU terminated.

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

If you are unsure about what is required of you with respect to academic honesty, please ask any of the course staff or send an e-mail to the course e-mail address. We would much rather discuss the matter with you prior to something occuring than have to resolve it through the academic misconduct process.

Each student in this course is expected to be able to explain and defend any submitted assessment item. As mentioned above, any submitted work may be subject to an additional oral examination, which may result in a change of mark, and, if there is a significant discrepancy between different forms of assessment (for example, homework and examinations, or submitted assignment and oral exam) this 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. 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. As noted above, given the need for the discussion component of the homeworks - any request for an extension of more than a day or two will usually result in us making the marks redeemable for the final examination instead.

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 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 discuss your submission with the tutor.

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 examination, following the normal procedure. You must do this as early as possible (normally with 72 hours), and you will be required to provide supporting documentation.

Note that although we give you two weeks 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: Semester week 2
    Due date: Monday of semester week 3, the 7th of March, at 9:00am
    Assessed in lab: During semester week 3
    Worth: 2% of final mark.

  • Homework 2

    Available: Semester week 3
    Due date: Monday of semester week 4, the 14th of March, at 9:00am
    Assessed in lab: During semester week 4
    Worth: 2% of final mark.

  • Homework 3

    Available: Semester week 4
    Due date: Monday of semester week 6, the 28th of March, at 9:00am
    Assessed in lab: During semester week 6
    Worth: 3% of final mark.

  • Homework 4

    Available: Semester week 6
    Due date: Monday of semester week 7, 18th of Apr, at 9:00am
    Assessed in lab: During semester week 7
    Worth: 4% of final mark.

  • Homework 5

    Available: Semester week 7
    Due date: Monday of semester week 9, 2nd of May, at 9:00am
    Assessed in lab: During semester week 9
    Worth: 4% of final mark.

Project assignment#

There is one larger (“project”) assignment. This assignment is worth 35% of your final course mark.

The assignment is available here. It will be due by Monday of semester week 12 (23rd of May at 9:00am, Canberra time)

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.

Mid-semester examination#

There will be no mid-semester exam this semester.

Final examination#

The final exam will take place sometime in the final exam period. More information will be provided in due course.

Supplementary and deferred exam#

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

However, they will normally take place in Week 1 of the next semester.

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