Notices

  • This is an OLD WEBSITE for COMP1511 from 2019 Term 3

    Posted by Marc Chee Sunday 16 February 2020, 11:32:20 PM, last modified Sunday 24 May 2020, 12:30:31 PM.

    Hi there,

    This website is from a previous term of COMP1511 (2019 Term 3).

    If you are looking for the 2020 Term 1 COMP1511 website, it's at this link: https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP1511/20T1/


  • Upcoming Results for COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Friday 20 December 2019, 04:48:03 PM.

    Final Results for COMP1511 - Provisional results are available now but myUNSW might show LE for COMP1511

    Hello all!

    When you get your Results of Assessment email tonight/tomorrow, your COMP1511 grade will probably be LE - Late Entry. This is because our finalisation of your marks was a bit late this term. We have submitted your final marks to UNSW, but we can't control how long they will now take to update on myUNSW.

    However, you can at least view your provisional results for COMP1511, via the View Autotests/Submissions/Marking page on the course website. Hopefully it says you have a mark >= 50 and a grade of PS, CR, DN or HD. If so, you have met all requirements and have passed COMP1511.

    Provisional marks can also change, for example when calculation errors are discovered, but it is incredibly rare to change a provisional PS to a FL. If your Final Mark contains the grade FL unfortunately you have not passed COMP1511 and are not being offered further assessment. You will need to retake in COMP1511 if it is required for your degree. You will also have to un-enrol from any 20T1 COMP courses which require COMP1511 as prerequisite such as COMP1521, COMP1531 & COMP2521.

    If your result is WD or LE, your COMP1511 result is yet to be determined. Some students have the grade WD due to an investigation of possible assignment plagiarism and will be receiving an email from me with details. These emails will be sent when UNSW reopens in early January. If you are being offered a supplementary exam, your grade should also be WD and you should have received an email with the details.

    Exam Marking

    General queries about exam marking should be asked in the class forum but please first read answers to previous questions and the following information:

    Part 1 was automarked using patterns (regular-expressions) but a human marker was shown all answers matching the patterns and the marker adjusted the patterns to include all variants of correct (or partially correct) answers.

    Marks were not deducted for spelling mistakes, obvious typos, extra spaces, blank lines, writing \n for newline etc.Part 2 questions were automarked using tests you hadn't seen, then passed to a human marker. If you scored less than full marks for a part 2 question, your answer must have failed at least one automarking test. All answers that passed all marking tests received full marks. The human marker could still give the majority of marks if an answer failed automarking tests for unimportant reasons. While passing the supplied autotests guaranteed no marks, almost all answers that passed the supplied autotests received 8+/10.

    A few students "hard-coded" the supplied autotests into their answer. This didn't help their code pass the (unseen) automarking tests, and didn't get marks from the human marker. The marking scripts automatically retrieved and marked answers which students forgot to submit - and for Part 1 if empty answers were accidentally saved over previous answers, the previous answers were recovered.

    Exam questions and answers (yours or mine) are not released.

    Assessment Review

    If you would like to review your course assessment (including a closer inspection of marks breakdown in the exam), I will be available for face to face consultations in late January (exact dates to be confirmed). Please note there is a faculty policy that falling 1 mark short of a HD/DN/CR, is not sufficient reason to review a student's assessment.

    COMP1511

    COMP1511 is a challenging course that can have a lot of very difficult concepts to grasp and understand in a short time. Bear in mind that these things don't necessarily need to be understood right now, but maybe will become clearer the further you go on your journey to learn about Computing. I hope that, regardless of your marks, you've gained some understanding of programming and are curious as to what the deeper mysteries are in working with computers and that you continue to put time and effort into your learning from here on.

    Marc Chee

  • COMP1511 Exam Tomorrow!

    Posted by Marc Chee Thursday 28 November 2019, 08:49:15 PM.

    A final reminder to the students of COMP1511 that the exam for this course is tomorrow, the 29th November.

    If you are unsure of your time allocation, you can confirm it using this link: https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1511/19T3/seating/final/register.cgi/allocations

    Some last minute advice:
    • Eat a proper meal before the exam
    • Bring a transparent drink bottle to keep hydrated during the exam
    • Bring some pens/pencils to draw diagrams to help you solve problems
    • Get some sleep tonight! A well rested brain is usually better last minute cramming

  • Week 11 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Wednesday 27 November 2019, 04:36:30 PM.

    Well, there is no Week 11 in reality, but consider this the week after week 10!

    A few things to remind everyone about:

    Course Surveys

    Hopefully most people have had a chance to fill out the myExperience survey that goes along with COMP1511. This is one of the few ways you can give us some feedback on the course and our teaching to let us know what did and didn't work and what we can do to help future cohorts who will take COMMP1511. The link is here: https://myexperience.unsw.edu.au/

    Assignment 2, Pokedex

    Hopefully you've been able to finish work on Pokedex. Just to let everyone know, There won't be enough time to mark all the Pokedexes before the exam, so to make it fair, no results for Assignment 2 will be released before the exam. Speaking of which . . .

    COMP1511 Final Exam

    The final exam is this Friday, the 29th. You should already have an email in your inbox detailing your room assignment and starting time for the exam. If you have any issues please contact cs1511@cse.unsw.edu.au and we can help sort out any last minute problems.


    Good luck and see you on Friday!

  • Final exam seating allocations

    Posted by Andrew Bennett Thursday 21 November 2019, 02:07:54 PM.

    Hello!

    Your final exam session and seating allocation is now available. We'll send this link out again closer to the final exam, which is on Friday, 29th November 2019 , but please check your allocations now , and let us know if there's any issues.

    You can see your allocation here: https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1511/19T3/seating/final/register.cgi/allocations

    If there are any problems, email us ASAP at cs1511@cse.unsw.edu.au (make sure you include your zID in the email).

  • Exam Date Clarification

    Posted by Marc Chee Tuesday 19 November 2019, 02:53:52 PM.

    I apologise for the confusion in last night's notice. The actual date for the exam is Friday 29th November.

  • Week 10 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Tuesday 19 November 2019, 02:27:42 AM.

    The final week of lectures and classes for COMP1511.

    This week's lectures will be a recap of the course material as well as a guide for how the exam functions and some ideas on how best to approach it.

    In this week's Lab, you'll get a chance to use the exam environment. This is a chance to see how the different questions work and what resources you'll have available to you. Most of the lab won't be partner exercises this time and instead be done under partial exam conditions to give you a chance to practice.

    We're also nearing the end of our time with the Pokedex. Remember that Assignment 2 is due this weekend! My suggestion is to get the assignment finished and out of the way as fast as you can, because our exam has been scheduled for the last day of the study break (28th November), which leaves us very little time for study!

  • Week 9 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 11 November 2019, 07:10:25 PM.

    Hi all,

    A few things that we need to sort out at the moment:

    Exam preferences

    As you may already know, the COMP1511 exam is held in our labs over the course of a day in either a morning or afternoon session. If you have a clash with another exam, our system will have already assigned you whichever session doesn't clash. We have a form available for you to give us a preference for a session here: https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1511/19T3/seating/final/register.cgi/

    Please fill out this form this week, as exam session assignments will be happening at the start of week 10.

    Catastrophic Fire Warning

    This week, the government has issued a Catastrophic Fire Warning, which for Sydney means a very high risk of fire and some very adverse wind and smoke. If you feel like you can't make it to your scheduled tutorial/lab, it's ok this week to attend a different lab (hopefully the conditions won't be too bad every day of the week). If conditions are very bad and people can't make it to tutorials/labs at all, we may schedule some online content to supplement the tutorials.

    Remember that the lectures are recorded (or if I can't make it to UNSW, I'll put them on Youtube), so they're not compulsory to attend this week.

    Please look after your health and safety before worrying about being at UNSW for COMP1511.

    Marc

  • Assignment 2 Pokedex Video Content

    Posted by Marc Chee Saturday 09 November 2019, 02:44:40 PM.

    Hi COMP1511!

    By this point of the course, we've seen all the content we need to be able to start working on the second assignment. Having said that, I fully recognise the fact that Linked Lists are quite complicated structures that take a combination of abstract thinking and complicated code syntax to execute.

    With that in mind, we've got a bit more support here for you that should help both in understanding and implementation.

    AndrewB has put together a series of videos that cover the structure and techniques used in Pokedex that should come in handy. Here's the playlist .

    I'll also be streaming again on Monday, 4-6pm, answering any questions people have about the Assignment and Linked Lists in general. As opposed to lectures, I'll try to spend a bit of time drawing pictures etc, which might help people get a handle on what's happening in the code we wrote in the lectures. Here's the stream link .

    Marc

  • Introducing "1511 autoadvisor"

    Posted by Andrew Bennett Monday 04 November 2019, 08:39:49 PM, last modified Sunday 24 November 2019, 05:46:15 PM.

    Hi everyone, AndrewB here (your friendly rainbow-haired course admin).

    For my thesis, I've been working on a tool that can help novice programmers find and fix certain types of bugs in their code, by providing automated "tutor-like" advice (rather than a massive dump of information like you get from autotest/dcc).

    The tool is mostly designed to give advice about problems with loops and arrays (including strings), so if you find yourself having any problems with your code, give it a try and see how you find it.

    You can access the tool by running "1511 autoadvisor file.c" , e.g. "1511 autoadvisor palindrome.c" .

    If you have any thoughts / comments / feedback, or if you run into any problems, I would very much like to hear it: you can email me at andrew.bennett@unsw.edu.au , and/or fill out this form: http://autoadvisor.website

    Thanks!

  • Week 8 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 04 November 2019, 05:35:53 PM.

    Hi all!

    I hope the warmer weather is treating everyone well!

    We're in another big week in 1511, with the release of our second Assignment. Have you ever wanted to be the very best, like no one ever was? Well, if you're going to be discovering Pokemon, you'll need a Pokedex. We'll be working with Linked Lists to create our version of the Pokemon encyclopedia! Over the next week, we'll be talking about the assignment in Lectures and Tutorials as well as a series of videos we'll be releasing soon and a Live Stream next Monday.

    The Pokedex Assignment Specification can be found here .

    You may also have noticed that provisional exam timetables are available. I will be covering the exam in detail in Week 10, but in the meantime, here's the rough timing so that you have some information for timetabling:

    The exam is run in two separate sessions, a morning and an afternoon. If you have a clash with another exam that day, your 1511 exam will be automatically moved to the session that doesn't clash. The exam is held in our labs in a special environment that is much like our weekly lab classes (but with less access to outside resources so we can genuinely test your understanding).

    If you have any further questions about the exam, please use the course forum, and also bear in mind that I will cover the exam in detail in lectures later!

  • Some Video Content

    Posted by Marc Chee Thursday 24 October 2019, 04:33:40 PM.

    Hi all!

    The COMP1511 team has created a couple of videos that you might find useful.

    Andrew B, our Subject Administrator has made a video that clarifies a lot of the issues around arrays and pointers being used as function input. Check it out here: COMP1511 - functions and memory

    I also hit a point today in the lecture where I didn't have time to talk about everything that I wanted to, so I recorded a little bonus video that's available here: COMP1511 19T3 Lecture 12 add on

    We hope both of these are useful to you and give you a bit more information about the things we're working on at the moment!

  • Week 6 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 21 October 2019, 02:08:54 PM.

    Hello all!

    Welcome to the second half of COMP1511. We're going to be wrapping up the first half of the course by finishing our first Assignment this week. I hope everyone's had a chance to make a start on this! If you're having any issues with progress, there's a Live Stream ( Assignment 1 Stream ) happening this afternoon that you'll be able to ask questions in and it will also be recorded and available for you to watch if you can't make the exact time. If you need help of a more personal nature, check out the timetable for Help Sessions .

    The second half of the course will be using pointers and memory a lot, so if you missed last Thursday's introduction to pointers, I highly recommend going back to the lecture recordings . . . we'll be continuing with that content this week!

    A note about course communications: Please direct all communication regarding this course to the email address: cs1511@cse.unsw.edu.au Any emails going to Marc's personal email that are course related will most likely not get answered (unless they're something important and private that you would like only Marc to see).


  • Assignment 1 Live Stream

    Posted by Marc Chee Sunday 20 October 2019, 11:45:39 PM.

    Hi all!

    Apologies for the short notice, but I (Marc) will be Live Streaming tomorrow (Monday the 21st October) at 4pm with some help for Assignment 1 CS Paint as well as just answering questions and clarifying anything people would like to know about.

    The link for the stream is here: Assignment 1 Release Stream

    If you can't make it to the stream, it will be available to view as a video afterwards. I will be answering any questions people have as well as one or two things that have been coming up a bit in our course forum questions.

  • Week 5 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 14 October 2019, 02:30:01 PM.

    Hello COMP1511!

    As you may have noticed, we're pushing into programming territory where we might want to pay closer attention to everything happening in the course now!

    If you need a hand with anything, especially complicated code like your first assignment, extra Help Sessions are now available! There's one session each day of the week, so you should be able to find one that matches your schedule and if you need to go to more than one, you can! Check out the Help Sessions section of the course website.

    If you haven't already, now's a great time to get started on Assignment 1 ! If you need help getting started, here are a few tips:
    • The Week 4 lectures have a bit of material on two dimensional arrays including how to access individual cells and general ideas on the layout
    • The Week 4 Tutorial and Lab have some information on reading in integers until "End of Input". This will help you in reading multiple commands
    • Your first task for the assignment should be something like:
      • Read the first integer of input
      • Decide which command you just received
      • Read the rest of the integers for that specific command
      • Make the changes in the canvas that make sense for that command
      • Test to see if this has made the canvas look the way you want it to
    • After that, you can move on to processing more than one type of command and multiple commands in succession

  • Assignment 1 - CS Paint

    Posted by Marc Chee Tuesday 08 October 2019, 12:50:29 AM.

    Hi again COMP1511!

    Assignment 1 has now been released! You can find it via the Class Webpage here: https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP1511/19T3/resources/36262

    It's called CS Paint and it's a bit of a simulation of a drawing/painting app. We'll be spending a bit of time in Lectures and Tutorials this week talking about it and how it works.

    If you have any queries about how the assignment works or the specific details of parts of it, the Course Forum is a good place to ask, but remember that as Assignments are individual assessments, please don't share any code with anyone other students (including on the forum)

  • Week 4 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 07 October 2019, 12:41:40 AM.

    Hi there, COMP1511,

    Welcome to Week 4!

    Week 3's lecture notes have been supplemented with the code we wrote in the lectures in case you want to see the Dice Statistics and Player Scores programs that we wrote . . . both of them have a lot of useful code about looping!

    In case you haven't looked at it yet, the Weekly Test for Week 3 is available here . You still have until Thursday afternoon to complete it.

    Assignment 1 hasn't been released yet, but we're still planning on having that available to you before the long weekend is over (so in the next 24 hours). This week, we'll be dedicating some time in the Lectures to talk about Assignment 1 as well as covering some material that will be of great help for the Assignment in the Tutorial and Lab. It's recommended to at least have a quick skim through the assignment specification document before Wednesday's lecture!

  • Week 3 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Sunday 29 September 2019, 09:18:38 PM.

    Hello COMP1511!

    I hope everyone's starting to get a feel for programming now!

    If you're interested in the code from last week's lectures, the Course Website has it here . You may also have noticed that each weekend, we release the answers to the tutorials so if there's anything you're unsure about, you can read more about it in the Tutorials, Labs, Tests section of the website. Lab solutions will start appearing there also, just a little bit delayed as the due date for labs is the Monday after the week that they're held.

    This week has a bit of new content that will be releasing soon . . . the first being the Weekly Tests (Thursday) and the second will be the first Assignment (on the weekend, most likely Sunday).

    In each Weekly Test, we'll release a set of three questions for you to answer. The best way to do these is to not look at them until you can set aside an hour where you won't be disturbed. Then, open the Test for that week and attempt the questions as if you're in an exam, with no external help or resources. At the end of that hour, you can check how you're going and you should be able to get a reasonable amount of feedback as to whether you're understanding the course at the moment and which parts of it you'd like to study further. If, after the hour is up, you'd like to continue working on the questions, you may do so (and you can submit the finished versions any time before the next Thursday).

    Assignment 1 will have its first release next weekend, and it's worth having a quick look through the specification document when it's released, but if any of it is confusing, don't worry too much, we'll have a bit of time to cover it in lectures in Week 4. It will be due at the end of Week 6.

    Marc

  • Week 2 of COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 23 September 2019, 12:08:22 AM.

    Hello COMP1511!

    Just a notice to welcome everyone to Week 2.

    In terms of course content on the course website , the Dice Checker program from the first week of lectures is available if anyone would like to look at it. It's in the Week 1 Lectures section. Week 2's Tutorial, Lab and Lectures are also available if anyone would like to look ahead at them.

    A reminder: Week 1's Lab is not assessed, but if you've received an email reminding you about submissions, it might be useful to talk to your tutor and make sure the submission process is working smoothly for you. Also, the Weekly Test component of the course will not be starting until Week 3.

    Another reminder: If you have a question that might be helpful for more people to know the answer to, please ask it on our forums . We've been redirecting a few email questions there if we think the answer could be useful to more than one person.

  • Welcome to COMP1511

    Posted by Marc Chee Monday 16 September 2019, 10:45:04 PM.

    The teaching and admin staff would like to welcome you to COMP1511, starting this week. In case you haven't visited already, our course website is online at ( https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP1511/19T3/ ). At the moment, the most important thing to look at is the Course Outline , which will have some of the details of how this course will be run.

    Some of the first week's Lecture, Tutorial and Laboratory material is available already if you're interested. All Tutorials, Labs (and of course Lectures) are running this week.

    You will also be receiving an email inviting you to our Course Forum, which is run by a system called Ed. This forum will be a handy place to ask questions or look at answers other people have already received that might help you with your course work.

    We look forward to meeting you all very soon and sharing the joy of programming with you!

    Marc Chee (on behalf of the COMP1511 Teaching Staff)

  • New tutorial + lab timeslot opened

    Posted by Andrew Bennett Monday 16 September 2019, 01:22:37 PM.

    Hello everybody,

    We have opened a new COMP1511 tutorial + lab on Fridays at 1-3pm (TLB 10247).

    If you would prefer this timeslot to your currently allocated tutorial and lab, you can change which TLB you are enrolled in on myUNSW.


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