NSWI170 Computer Systems

Grading

Lab credit and the course exam (test) are completely independent.

Lab Credit

Students are required to solve all lab assignments during the semester and then pass a final lab test. All the assignments are mandatory and must be submitted on time (before the deadlines). In addition, students need at least 13 points from the code reviews to be allowed to proceed to the final test (read the coding guidelines for more details).

Also, note that individual lab groups may differ in minor details (like deadlines), so follow the instructions of your lab teachers and consult with them about the details.

Finally, let us emphasize that all assignments must be solved alone and without AI tools, as we state in our ethical guidelines. Please, make sure you read them carefully.

Course Exam

The exam has a form of a test, which is taken in labs (at a PC) and evaluated by a computer using Quixam application. Examples of testing questions will be presented in the last lecture. The questions will target mainly your understanding, not your memorized knowledge. In other words, you do not need to remember exactly all the constants or precise names of MIPS instructions; however, you need to understand the concepts and solve simple computational/algorithmic assignments (e.g., put given instructions in the right order or translate a virtual address into a physical address).

Exam dates will be announced before the summer exam period in SIS where you need to enroll for them. Exam terms will be added if necessary, but we are not planning any regular terms in September. Credit is not required for taking the exam; however, you need both the credit and pass the exam to complete the course.

The grading is:

We have decided to give the students one special dispensation during the exam. A student may decide to leave the test after the testing session has started. However, the exam term would be forfeited (the same way as if the student did not arrive without a due excuse) and each student can do this at most once. This way you can avoid receiving a bad mark in case you underestimate the preparation and you realize this during the test. On the other hand, once the test is graded, the received mark will be always written in the SIS.

The test results may be consulted after the test with the teacher, but as a general policy, we will not give you the exact correct answers nor corroborate your assumptions about correct answers. However, we will gladly clarify any principles and explicit knowledge that were used in particular questions.

Creating new sets of questions is quite time-consuming and we would like to prevent the students from studying the answers to particular questions instead of studying the course itself. Therefore, publishing test questions is strictly prohibited!

It might be also worth reading our reasons for having the exam in this format, which is summarized on the student's rebuttal page.