The first prelim, scheduled for Tues., Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., Upson 205, will be a closed-book 75-minute exam. The second prelim will be a three-day take-home exam handed out on Tuesday, Mar. 28 or Friday, Mar. 31 (at the student's option) and due three days later. The final exam will also be a three-day take-home, handed out on either May 5 or May 8 (at student's option) and due three days later.
Problem sets will be due a week after they are handed out. There will be a late penalty of 10% for homework handed in up to 24 hours late. No homeworks will be accepted more than 24 hours late.
The exams will cover topics drawn from the lectures and homework, and from the underlying mathematics---you are not responsible for any outside reading.
The two prelims will each count for 20% of the final grade, and the final will count for 30%.
Grade guarantee: A score of at least 88% guarantees an A- or better in the course. A score of at least 78% guarantees a B- or better. These cutoffs may be lowered at the instructor's discretion but not raised.
Students are permitted to consult outside published material for the homework and take-home prelims, although the homework and prelim will be fully based on lecture notes and the textbook. If a student consults a source other than the lecture notes and textbook, he or she must cite the source---failure to cite the source will be considered cheating.
The penalty for cheating will be an F for the course, following a hearing with the instructor as spelled out in the academic integrity manual. In extreme circumstances the instructor will in addition bring the case before the university's academic integrity board.
Stephen A. Vavasis, Computer Science Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, vavasis@cs.cornell.edu
handed out 1/23/06