Computer Science 280: Discrete Structures
Spring, 2003

Spring 2003 -- Prof. Joe Halpern

Breaking news

May 18

We've graded the exams and I've assigned final grades. On the whole, people did quite well on the final; the mean was 57/75 (76%). The mean grade for the course was 78% and the median was 81%. The median became the border line between B and B+. Roughly speaking, a grade over 86% was in the A's (A+, A, or A-), a grade between 70 and 86 was in the B's, and a grade between 60 and 70 was in the C's. (Unfortunately, there were a few gardes below 60, but not too many.) If you're still on campus, you can pick up your exams any afternoon after 2 PM. (You may want to check with Cindy Robinson at cindy@cs.cornell.edu to make sure she's around.) If you have questions, make an appointment to see me, but first look over the solutions. Warning: if you complain about your grade, your grade may go up as well as down. It will also take at least a change of two points on the final (and typically more like 6-8) to make a change in a grade. Finally, if you've already gone home for the summer, I'm willing to send you your grade if you send me email. You can also look over your exam in the fall (and, yes, I'm even willing to make grade changes in the fall, if absolutely necessary). Have a great summer.

May 14

The final will be in Upson B17 (the basement of Upson), not in Olin! You should come a few minutes early, so you're ready to start right at noon. Good luck!

May 12

One more office hour change: Aaron Kaufman's office hours are moved from 7-8 PM Tuesday (which would conflict with the review session) to 10-11 AM Thursday morning, for those of you desperate for last-minute assistance. Good luck on the final.

May 2

Two more office hour changes:

May 2

Three bureacratic items:
  1. There will be two review sessions: one on Monday, May 12 (by Alexa) at 7-9 PM in Upson 211, and one on Tuesday, May 13 (by Kevin) at 7-9 PM in Uspon 211.
  2. Office hours will continue up to the final exam, at the usual times, except for the following changes: There may be a few more changes, although I hope not. Keep watching this space ...
  3. As promised, I have posted Note that there are no figures in these files (they were hand-drawn and are not in the source file). As I mentioned in class, some questions on these exams cover material that we didn't cover (and so you're not responsible for).

Mar. 2

As promised, I have posted Note that there are no figures in these files (they were hand-drawn and are not in the source file). As I mentioned in class, these were 50-minute tests, so are not indicative of the length of this year's prelim. Also, there are some questions on these prelims (on Dijkstra's algorithm, Warshall's algorithm, and Eulerian paths) for which you are not responsible for this prelim. Last but not least, I made a minor correction to the Week 5 notes (the definition of weak connectivity wasn't quite right; see p. 19 of the notes).

Mar. 2

Note: from now on, we will deduct two points off your homework if you don't use a cover sheet.

Feb. 28

The review session for the prelim will be in Upson 211, both on Sunday night and on Monday night. It will run 7:30 - 9 PM both nights. Kevin O'Neill will do the Sunday session and Alexa Sharp will do the Monday session.

Feb. 18

Aaron Kaufman's office hours will likely move to 9:30 - 11:00, just for today. Check the newsgroup for updates.

Feb. 14

Here is a cover sheet to staple on to the front of your homework. It will make it much easier for us to report your grades.

Feb. 14

It's official: the midterm will be Wednesday, March 5, from 7:30 - 9:00 PM, in Olin Hall 155 (the same room as the regular class). Please show up a few minutes early; I'll start right on time.

Feb. 6

Djiao Mei's office hours have changed slightly: they're now 11:05 - 12:05 on Friday, instead of being 12-1.

Jan. 30

Office hours have now started and are posted here