Exams

Since the course assignments are not graded or weighted and the project is group work and mostly focus on practical skills, there will be 4 exams, worth 17% each to cover the material from the more theoretical aspects of this course and allow for individual distinction. Each exam will be short and cover one course topic. All exams will be heard during the course’s joint Tutorial slot on Fridays.

Grad students participating in the course will have grad-only problems on the exam.

Exam Dates

Exam 1: Friday 10/2 (length: 60 minutes, weight: 17%)
Exam 2: Friday 10/23 (length: 60 minutes, weight: 17%)
Exam 3: Friday 11/13 (length: 60 minutes, weight: 17%)
Exam 4: Friday 12/4 (length: 60 minutes, weight: 17%)

About to miss an exam?

There will be no make-up exams. If you cannot make it to a test due to a (documented) illness or severe personal emergency, then

Contact your instructor before the exam time.
Bring your documentation (which is approved and stamped by the registrar) for why you missed the test, as soon as you are able after the exam.
Under legitimate circumstances, the weight of the remaining exams will be increased to cover the grade of the missed exam.
You cannot miss more than a single exam. If you miss more than one, only the weight of one exam will be redistributed. You will forfeit the grade for the rest of the missed exams.

Exam Forgiveness

I dislike exams (as a way of evaluating someone’s grasp of the material) as much as any of you. I specifically disklike the fact that in the age of AI agents, we cannot rely on off-line course work in which people can put thought and effort into learning properly and then delivering the result of their learning. But, we are where we are, and we need to adjust. To soften the severity of this situtation, I will implement the following policy at the end of the term for calculating your final grade.

If you have grades for all 4 exams:
- The weight of your lowest grade exam will automatically decrease from 17% to 10% for the final grade calculation and distributed evenly over the remaining 3 exams. So, we will devalue your worst exam so that it will hurt you less.
If you have grades for 3 exams only (with proper documentation, etc), then each of your exams is worth 22.66%:
- The weight of your lowest grade exam will decrease to 17% and the rest will be distributed over your better grades.

It is extremely advantageous to you not to miss any single exam, if the situation can be avoided. The increased weight for the rest of the exams will simply make this situation even more severe than in has to be.