Course information and policies

Grading scheme

Updated March 27 to reflect the updated marking scheme. (So far, 63 students have voted for the marking scheme change and 6 against. 63 is already more than half the class. Thanks everyone!)

• 40% 50% Assignments
  • The Assignments page describes some rules your assignments must follow to receive marks as well as the policy on late assignments. There will be 10 assignments, weighted equally. They are due at 11:59pm on Wednesdays.
• 10% 12.5% Tutorial (and online) quizzes
  • There will be 10 or 11 quizzes, given in tutorial, with no part marks: you get 1 for a perfect answer or 0 if there's any mistake.
  • There will be between 7 and 10 quizzes. The quizzes for weeks 10 and later, if any, will be given online rather than in tutorial. For quizzes 1-6, there will be no part marks: you get 1 for a perfect answer or 0 if there's any mistake. On quizzes 7 and later, marks of 0, 0.5 or 1 will be possible.
• 10% 12.5% Midterm exam
  • Date changed: The midterm test was on Monday, March 2. Added January 27: You will be allowed one 8 1/2" by 11" aid sheet. (The other side must be blank.)
• 40% Final exam (Cancelled)
  • This will be during the university's final examination period.
• 25% take-home assessment
  • Due April 9 at 11:59pm Toronto time, and to be posted 72 hours before that.
  • Policies:
    • Open-book, but not open-everything.
      • You can use the course textbooks and your own notes.
      • You can use other textbooks if I approve them --- email me what you want to use.
      • I will design the questions so that searching the web will not help. If you violate these open-book rules, you'll probably just be wasting your own time.
    • You may not discuss the questions with each other.
  • See End of term changes page for more information.

You must get at least 40% on the final exam to pass the course.

Final grades may be adjusted up or down to conform with University of Toronto grading policies.

The final exam take-home assessment will have questions in common with CSC236. Final grades will be adjusted relative to the final grades in CSC236, depending on the relative average performance of CSC240 students and CSC236 students on these questions.

Accessibility

Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach the instructor (email: csc240-2020-01@cs.toronto.edu) and/or Accessibility Services at (416) 978 8060; studentlife.utoronto.ca/as.

Prerequisite mathematics

The course's co-requisites are listed on the Academic Calendar page here.

You should also make sure at the start of the course that you're familiar with the notation and concepts in this file, "Basic Prerequisite Mathematics". Please read it carefully and make sure you're comfortable with all the material in it.

You may also want to skim Chapter 4 of Mathematics for Computer Science and Chapter 0 of the 236/240 notes, and read any of the parts that don't look familiar to you.

Re-marking

Through MarkUs, you can ask us to review the grading of any assignment or quiz, or the midterm. You must do this within two weeks after the work was graded, and include a specific reason, otherwise we will not accept your request.

We may decide to re-mark the entire piece of work (not just the question you requested a re-mark for), and your grade may go up or down, depending on what we see when we re-mark it.

Exception: Assignment 1 Question 1: see the Assignment 1 section.

Collaboration and academic integrity

Note added March 24: The below policy is for assignments. Take-home assessments have a stricter policy; in particular, you may not discuss them with others at all. See the policy published with each take-home assessment for more information.

(Adapted from Prof. Faith Ellen's CSC240 policy from Winter 2019.)

Summary: You can learn a lot from talking to other students, but when it comes to assignments, you must read the below rules carefully.

I encourage you to meet with other students: work through exercises in the course notes, talk about material you had trouble with, etc. Get to know some other students so you can study together and share notes if you miss lectures.

You must write assignments by yourself, using only the official course material and your own lecture notes as aids.

You may discuss assignment problems in person with other students, or consult another textbook, as long as you follow these rules:

• You must destroy any notes made during this time, and not write anything down for two hours after. (If you really want to keep your notes, you can, but don't look at them until after the deadline for late submissions has passed.)
• Do not discuss solutions on the course discussion forum, or any other forum.
• Don't let other students even look at your completed solutions, since this can lead to copying.
• On the first page of each assignment, list all people you talked to (even briefly) and which other material you used.
  • If you didn't discuss the assignment with anyone other than the instructor or TAs, write "No outside discussion".
  • If you didn't use any material other than the official course material and your own lecture notes, write "No extra material consulted".

These rules apply until the deadline for late submissions has passed and solutions are posted on the course website.

The point is that all students should understand the solutions well enough to write them up by themselves. Failure to follow these rules is a serious academic offense.

If you have questions about this policy, be sure to ask the instructor or TAs. Here's some great advice from Prof. François Pitt.