The grading of programming assignments

• Grading can be all or nothing!
  

  Programs that do not compile or compile but produce no output will receive little to no credit.

• Testing is important!
  

  Part of learning computer science is designing tests that can help determine if your code is correct. Your program will be graded on how well it meets the stated requirements. This includes working on tests you may not have tried! We will test your program on a suite of test cases that you will not know ahead of time, and your grade will be at least partially based on the performance of your program on those tests.

• Match output formatting exactly.

You may in the future have to write a program that produces an exact output for another program to read in, and its function may rely solely on your output being correct. For this reason we will be precise in checking your output formats.

• Grades are based on correct output, code content, and style.

  Use of indentation/white space, comments, and descriptive variable names are important aspects of coding style.

• Read the instructions.

  Following instructions is very important to being a good computer scientist. Since we are instructing a computer on EXACTLY how to perform a task, we must be able to mimic computer-type behavior, and follow instructions exactly. For a critical piece of code, such as one controlling parts of an airplane, directing emergency calls, or processing bank account transactions, the effects of not following instructions exactly can have profound impacts on people's lives. Therefore, in this course we will require you to follow all the instructions for an assignment. We encourage you to read the assignment before handing in your work, and double-checking your assignments to ensure that you have followed all instructions.

Solutions and Test Cases

Sometime soon after the late deadline for an assignment has passed, we will put our solution to the assignment, as well as the test cases used grade your assignment, on the Blackboard class website so you can look at them.