Instructor Office Hours: Mondays 1pm-2pm and Thursdays 4pm-5pm.

Computer:
Your CSE 8A accounts are still valid and will be used for CSE 8B. (If you did not take CS8A in the Winter 2001, then see the instructor about getting an account.)

Required Text :
1. Walter Savitch, Java: An Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, Second Edition, 2001, Prentice-Hall. (available at UCSD bookstore and other places.) This is same as the text used for CSE8A last term, so you probably already have the book.

Grading:
You will be given a series of approximately 7 homework assignments all of which are programming assignments. There will also be midterm exam and a final exam. The various items will be weighted as follows in determining your grade: Homework 20%, Midterm 35% , Final 45%. This will give you a total grade expressed as a percentage (0-100). Grades will be assigned according to the following rule:

A - 90% or above
B - 80% to 90%
C - 70% to 80%
D - 60% to 70%
F - below 60%

There will be no scaling. There will be pluses and minuses. For example, "B" means either B - , B, or B+.

Turning in Homework :
You will turn in your home work on the class computer. Instructions for turning in homework will be given in section and posted on the course computer. You will also be interviewed on your home work. Note that there are different deadlines for turning in home work and for being interviewed. To receive a grade (other than zero), you must both turn in the assignment before the turn-in-deadline and take an interview before the interview-deadline. If you turn in your assignment but do not do an interview, you will receive a grade of zero on that assignment.

Interviews:
To obtain an interview, simply go to the SUNPAL laboratory (AP&M 3414) when there is a proctor on duty and ask for an interview. If you are working on a team, then both team members must take the interview at the same time. Proctors will interview you to see if you understand the assignment, understand the program turned in, and understand the concepts covered in the assignment. Team members receive separate grades. If one understands things and the other does not, then one receives a high grade and the other a low grade.

Working in Teams:
You may work in teams of two students on the homework. Teams must always consist of no more than two people. You may form different teams for different assignments, but you cannot change team members once you start an assignment. If you prefer, you may do an assignment by yourself even if teams are allowed.

Late Policy:
We have been forced to this particular late policy and the above grading policy by three factors: 1. The large numbers of students in CSE courses. 2. The prevalence of cheating, and 3. The ease with which students can get a medical excuse. (I actually had one student who filled out a blank excuse form from the student health center in front of me when I asked for it. So, I have no faith in their or similar written excuses.)

No assignment or interview or exam (except as noted below) will be accepted late. A medical excuse, emergency, nor any other reason will not allow you to turn in anything late or retake a missed exam.

To allow you to miss a reasonably small amount of work without seriously jeopardizing your grade, the following rules will apply:

You may do an interview one or two days late, but there will be a penalty of 2 points (out of 10) for being one day late and a penalty of 3 for being two days late. You cannot take an interview three or more days late. You cannot turnin an assignment even one day late.

If you miss the midterm, for any reason (illness, emergency, over sleeping, don't feel like taking it), then you will receive 90% of your final exam grade as your midterm grade. Note that you do not need an excuse, but also note that there is a grade penalty. If you do take the midterm, it will count. You cannot ask to have your final exam to count for your midterm, if you have already taken the midterm

The lowest home work grade will be dropped, so you can afford to miss one home work assignment (although this is not advisable, if you are capable of doing the assignment).

Note that missing one homework assignment need not hurt your grade at all. Missing 4 home work assignments will cost approximately one grade ( A to B, B to C, etc.). Missing a number in between will have a small but not insignificant effect on your grade.

If you have a valid written medical excuse or something as compelling, then you will be allowed to retroactively drop the course. (I will approve it, but it still needs higher up approval). You will not be allowed to turnin anything late nor take a missed exam.

Deadlines:
Assignment turn-in due dates mean 8 am the following morning. So if the deadline is April 12, then it must be turned in by 8 am April 13. The interview must be completed by the end of the deadline day. Note that this means it must be completed by the end of the proctor hours on that day. Do not wait until the last minute, if the line at the last proctor hour on a deadline day is too long and you do not get an interview, you will not get any special consideration. To get any points at all you must both turn in the assignment and take an interview.

Multiple Interviews:
If you take more than one interview on an assignment, your grade for that assignment will be the lowest of the interview grades you received.

Cheating Policies:
Exams: Anybody talking during an exam or quiz will receive a zero for that exam. This may sound unreasonable. However, we have no good alternative. We can easily tell if you are talking, but we cannot listen to and evaluate everything that anybody in the room might say. Anybody found clearly cheating will receive an F in the class.

Programming Assignments: You may not work in groups unless the assignment explicitly says that you may. You must write your own programs. You may discuss the homework with your class mates and seek help from whomever you wish. All that is forbidden is blatant copying, but this rule against copying will be enforced. The only exception is that if two students are team partners on an assignment, then they may copy each others code on that assignment. If you are caught cheating on even one assignment, you will receive an F for the course.

We have structured the grading so that cheating on a homework assignment is unlikely to help you and could even hurt you, but we will still enforce the F penalty for cheating.

Electronic Mail:

Only use email for short clarification questions. Do not mail your programs and ask what is wrong with the program. If you cannot figure out or debug your program, make a listing and go see either a proctor or the instructor.

Do not expect an immediate answer. We will try to answer all reasonable email questions within 48 hours. Do not send a message the day before the deadline and expect an answer in time to meet the deadline.

Email will not be answered or in any way processed unless it contains both your name and your course account (cs8w__).

Internet Access:
If you have a net browser, some details about this course are available at the following internet address, but you must logon to the course computer in order to get all the information you need for this course.

http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/classes/sp01/