CS145 - Spring 2002
Introduction to Databases
Please note the regrade policy below.
There are eight assignments during the course. Assignments are given
out on Wednesdays and are due the following Wednesday. There is an
assignment due every full week except the first one. Most assignments
contain both written problems and project
work, although some contain only one or the other. Written
problems must be completed individually, while project work may
optionally be done in teams of two. (Details of partnerships are
specified in the Project page.)
The written problems include some relatively easy exercises
covering the core material as well as more difficult and open-ended
problems. None of the written problems are worth a significant
portion of your final grade (see Grading in the Administrative Information page) and scores are assigned
on a very coarse scale. The written problems serve primarily as a
means for you to ensure that you understand the material thoroughly,
and to prepare for the exams.
Solutions to written problems should be turned in during class or
at the course administrator's office: Gates Building room 419.
Written work may not be submitted electronically. Graded
written work is returned during class (or via courier to SCPD
students). Graded written work not picked up in class is placed in a
file cabinet drawer on the 4th floor of the Gates building between the
A and B wings.
- The written problems are worth 15% of your final grade in CS145. Each
assignment contains two types of written problems:
- Exercises are intended primarily to help you learn
the basic material (and prepare for the exams).
- Challenge problems are more open-ended and
difficult, intended to help you think more deeply about the topics.
Due to limited staffing for grading, we will not grade all of
the exercises, but will simply spot-check them. We will grade the
challenge problems. We will provide sample solutions for all
exercises and challenge problems. There are four possible overall
marks for your written work on each assignment:
- Check-plus means you appear to have done many of the
exercises and you did well on the challenge problems.
- Check means you appear to have done many of the
exercises and you may have attempted the challenge problems but you
didn't do well on them.
- Plus means you missed many of the exercises but did
well on the challenge problems.
- Minus means you missed many of the exercises and you may
have attempted the challenge problems but you didn't do well on them.
Check-plus is the best, check and plus are
roughly equivalent although we're more impressed with plus, and
minus is the worst although better than not turning in the
assignment at all.
- The project is worth 35% of your final grade in CS145.
Project parts will be graded out of a varying number of points.
- Written work, on-campus students: All written work must be
turned in by 4:00 PM on the Wednesday that it is due. Written work
turned in after the deadline but less than 24 hours late (i.e., by
4:00 PM on Thursday) will be accepted but penalized 20%. No written
work will be accepted more than 24 hours late since solutions may be
made available at that time. Written work may not be submitted
electronically.
- Written work, SCPD students: Written work due on
Wednesday must be timestamped by the Thursday courier at the latest.
No late written work is permitted for SCPD students sending their work
by courier, and consequently no late penalties apply. Written work
not sent or timestamped by an SCPD courier is subject to the late
policy for on-campus students specified above. We have been assured
that SCPD couriers reliably timestamp assignments the day they are
picked up. If you feel an assignment has not been timestamped
correctly, please contact SCPD and ask
them to get in touch with the course staff. Written work may not be
submitted electronically.
- Programming work: Programming work will be submitted
electronically (for both on-campus and SCPD students), and must be
submitted by midnight on the Wednesday that it is due. Programming
work submitted after the deadline but less than 24 hours late (i.e.,
by Thursday midnight) will be accepted but penalized 10%, and
programming work submitted more than 24 hours but less than 48 hours
late (i.e., by Friday midnight) will be penalized 30%. No programming
work will be accepted more than 48 hours late.
- For emergencies: Since emergencies do arise, each
student is allocated four "chits." Each chit may be used to turn in
written or programming work (but not both) up to 24 hours late with no
penalty, or two chits for programming work up to 48 hours late. For
SCPD students, chits apply only to programming work or written work
not sent by courier. Your chits will be applied to the first 96 hours
of late work regardless of whether it is written or programming work,
and we will keep track of chits automatically.
THIS LATE POLICY WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED.
Written exercises
- Please ask for a regrade only if it could affect the final
result on your assignment (i.e., check to check-plus,
plus to check-plus, minus to check, or
minus to plus).
- Do not ask for a regrade on a particular problem until you
have studied our sample solution. If we have a Thursday help session
devoted to discussing solutions to the assignment in question, please
come to or watch that help session as well. If there is no help
session and you do not understand the sample solution, please visit
office hours.
- After you have completed step 2, you should be able to explain
very clearly why your answer is indeed correct. Please do so in a
note attached to your homework, which you should then turn back in
marked clearly for a regrade.
To keep our administrative burden reasonable, please understand that
we cannot entertain a regrade request unless all of these steps
have been followed.
Project
Please send an email message to cs145-staff@cs stating that
you believe you deserve a project part regrade, and explaining
precisely why. Please include your name, leland username, and the
number of the project part in question. The TA responsible for
grading your project part will contact you.
Exams
- Do not ask for a regrade on a particular problem until you have
studied our sample solution. If you do not understand the sample
solution, please visit office hours.
- Once you understand the sample solution, if you still believe
that your solution is correct, you may either: (1) Visit any staff
member's office hours to discuss your solution to the problem and
whether a regrade may be warranted; or (2) Attach a note to your exam
explaining very clearly why your answer is correct, then turn it back
in marked very clearly for a regrade.
To keep our administrative burden reasonable, please understand that
we cannot entertain a regrade request unless all of these steps have
been followed.
Note that a similar discussion of the Honor Code as it pertains to the
programming project is provided in the Project page.
Under the Honor Code at Stanford, each of you is expected to submit
your own original written work in this course. On many occasions when
working on assignments it is useful to ask others (the instructor, the
TA's, or other students) for hints, or to talk generally about the
written problems. Such activity is both acceptable and encouraged,
but you must indicate on your written assignments any
assistance (human or otherwise) that you received. Any assistance
received that is not given proper citation will be considered a
violation of the Honor Code. In any event, you are responsible for
understanding, writing up, and being able to explain on your own all
written solutions that you submit. The course staff will pursue
aggressively all suspected cases of Honor Code violations, and they
will be handled through official University channels.
If you have any questions about this policy or about the degree
to which we will pursue Honor Code violations, please discuss your
concerns with the course staff immediately.