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Project Grading

Projects are graded during 30 minute in-person grading sessions.

Grading sessions will consist of:

• Each team member giving a demonstration of different portions of the program, showing that it satisfies the required part of the assignment and implements an appropriate number of bells and whistles. This is also the time to show off any great extensions or enhancements.
• Question and answers: The TA will ask a variety of questions. Some questions will be open for response from any team member, but others will be directed at individuals. Each team member is expected to have a thorough understanding of all required extentions of the project, and any bells and whistles s/he may have done. Here is a sample of the kind of questions that might be asked:
  • Why did you choose to implement feature X using technique Y rather than technique Z?
  • Describe the steps that you'd have to carry out to implement new feature X. What new data structures would you need? What modules would you have to modify?
  • Please make the following small change to the program, then recompile and run it.

The project implementations will be graded on a 10-point scale. Unlimited extra credit is possible on each project; however, each additional point of extra credit is twice as difficult to achieve as the previous point.

Each extra credit item is rated with a nominal value of "bells" and "whistles". One bell carries the same credit as two whistles. An actual implementation of an extra credit item may be worth somewhat more or less than its nominal value, depending on how well it was implemented.

In general, every team member will receive the same project implementation grade (although not necessarily the same project knowledge grade). However, we reserve the right to give different project implementation grades to different students on the team, for extreme circumstances in which it is clear that one or more members of the team contributed little or nothing to the project.

Project knowledge will be graded on a 3-point scale, separately for each team member. Here's a rough breakdown to give you a feeling for how points will be assigned:

1 pt:

Almost clueless: Answers to questions showed a severe lack of understanding. (I don't expect anybody to get this grade!)

2 pts:

Answers to questions showed an understanding at only a superficial level.

3 pts:

Answers to questions demonstrated a thorough understanding of the project. This is is the grade we expect to give almost all of the time.