CSE370 Workload and Grading


Workload

The course comprises the following elements:

  • Lectures: There are about 30 lectures. I plan to follow the book fairly closely. Where I diverge from the book, I will hand out supplementary material such as lecture notes.
  • Labs: There are 9 lab meetings during the quarter. Since the class is overloaded, you must attend your own lab section. For the most part, you should be able to complete the lab assignment in the 3 hour lab session. In some cases, however, you may need to spend some extra time. You will be able to check kits out to take home.
  • Reading: The schedule gives the pages from the textbook that we will cover in each lecture. The presentation in the lectures and text should complement each other. I will expect you to read the relevant pages before lecture, even though you may not understand everything. I will often hand out short design problems based on this reading to force you to think about the concepts before we discuss them in class.
  • Assignments: There will be an assignment handed out each week, typically on Wednesday, due the following Friday at the beginning of class. These assignments will include problems from the book and design problems to be solved using the CAD tools (Active-HDL). These will lead to lab assignments and a project involving the design of a simple processor.
  • Quizzes Five in-class quizzes (15-20 minutes per quiz) will be given at the end of class every other Friday. We will drop the lowest quiz score, which allows you to miss a quiz without penalty. You must have a strong excuse to make up a quiz.
  • Final exam: There will be the usual two-hour final exam at the end of the quarter.

We will try to ensure that the workload is typical for a four-credit course: Namely, eight to ten hours per week outside of the lectures. If we do not succeed, please let us know.

We have structured the course so that spending an hour or two per day will maximize your efficiency. You will work this way in the real world—you cannot cram a three-month design assignment into the last night—so you may as well work this way now. Plus, you will understand the material better. If you leave the homework for Thursday night, then you will not have time to study for the quizzes, and you will not have time to ask questions when (not if) the software misbehaves.

Software tools frequently consume more time then they should. We have designed the assignments to get you up to speed gradually (over the period of a few weeks), but undoubtedly there will be some start-up cost. Essentially, you are learning a language, a compiler, and getting familiar with a process. Every tool imposes a certain model: Your frustration can be high until you assimilate that model and learn to use it. Be sure to use the tutorials, and do not spend countless hours making no progress. Ask for help. We will spend some of the office hours in the lab so that you can get immediate help.

Your assignments must be neat and legible. We will not spend time trying to decipher messy work. If we can't read your work, we can't grade it. As you learn the tools, you may want to use them to draw schematics to turn in.

Assignments

Your weekly assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned due date. Assignments handed in during or immediately after class will incur a 10% penalty. We will penalize your assignment 10% per day for each additional day late. Since the due date is almost always Friday, assignments handed in during the weekend will be penalized 20%, on Monday, 30%, etc. We do not accept partial turnins, i.e. assignments completed on the installment plan. See the class schedule for assignment due dates and times.

 

I will sometimes pass out a Daily Assignment at the end of lecture, which are due at the beginning of the next lecture.  These are small exercises intended to get you thinking about a new concept.  Do not spend more than 15 minutes on the solution – you will get full credit for turning in any good-faith effort.

We will post solutions for the assignments in a timely fashion. Please review the assignment solutions carefully before questioning a grade with either the instructor or the teaching assistants.

If you miss an assignment as a result of unavoidable circumstances, send the instructor a one-line email asking for an extension, the reason for your request, and the date you anticipate handing in the assignment. You know which circumstances are avoidable and which are unavoidable.

If you have a reasonable but avoidable reason for requesting an extension, send email to the instructor at least 24 hours before the assignment is due, citing a reason for the extension as above. Assume the extension is granted, unless the instructor responds to the contrary. Avoidable extension requests made after the assignment is due will be rejected.


Grading

We will compute your course grade as follows:

30%: Homework assignments
20%: Lab assignments
25%: Biweekly quizzes
25%: Final exam

Your grade will be determined by how well you understand the material as evidenced by the assignments and tests. I would like nothing better than to give the entire class a 4.0


Comments to: cse370-webmaster@cs.washington.edu