COMP9024 Notices

Marking and final notice

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

It's been an intensive last 3 weeks of marking and processing. The results were submitted yesterday. Here are some observations:

• I've opened just the 4 assessment marks ASST1, ASST2, MIDTRM, EXAM, and they are all percentages. The reason is that only these 4 marks are sent to the university, and they calculate your final mark, using the proportions 10%, 15%, 15%, 60% (respectively).
• Assignment 2 was the done brilliantly, with a very large number scoring close to 100%.
• I have received a few complaints about the penalty for using globals in Assignment 2. I was surprised anybody used them at all as I have said many times in lectures that globals are strictly forbidden. They had to carry the heaviest penalty.
• The final exam was done well, and there was a big improvement in coding overall when compared to the mid-term exam. The theory in the final exam was where many lost marks. Nobody got 100% in the theory, but 2 got just one answer wrong. A large number got close to 100% in the exam coding.
• I have no control over supplementary examinations. The list is compiled by Student Administration who tell me who is entitled to a supplementary, based on those that have applied for Special Consideration.
• I do apologise for not responding to the many emails and forum queries over the last week, but the marking has been a great deal of work for Harrison, Kevin and myself, and it has not been possible to consider individual cases.
• Special thanks to Harrison and Kevin for their diligence and competence. Both have now moved on and are no longer associated with the course.
• A big thank you for your conduct in lectures. You have been the best-behaved, most attentive audience that I have ever taught.

Final examination preparation

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

Please read the examination preparatory notes I have written under the 'Final exam' link on the left.

Mid-term results

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

You can 'collect' your results for the mid-term by using the command
9024 classrun -collect midexam

• all questions are worth 10 marks
• I compiled/executed every program personally
• the automarking sometimes failed e.g. because a main() was not present, but I marked a corrected version. I often did more testing than the automark testcases.

Seat allocation for the final exam

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

A link to the seating for the final exam has been posted under Final exam on the left.

Exercises for Week 10

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

Exercises covering BSTs and splay trees that were handled in Week 10 have been posted.

Week 11 and myExperience

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

In Week 10 I gave my last lecture. There will be no lecture on Monday Week 11 (as suggested on the UNSW timetable).

You are encouraged to provided feedback on the course on myExperience (go to https://unsw.bluera.com/unsw/ )

Week 9 exercises and assignment

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

Week 9 exercises have been posted, as well as my solutions to week 8. There is also a small change to the assignment 2 specification regarding the output format. See the Changes at the head of the description under the link Assignments.

Final examination session preference

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

There is a new link Final Exam under CourseWork . On this link you find an exam-session selector that will allow you to state your preference between morning and afternoon sessions of the final on-line exam.

Weekly exercises

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

The Week 7 solutions have been made available, and the Week 8 exercises have been posted.

Week 5 Exercises/Solutions + Assignment 2

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

You'll find the mid-term exercises/solutions in Week 5 Exercises/Solutions.

Assignment 2 has been extended and asks you to build a graph that represents ordered word ladders.

Exercises Week 7

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

The exercises for week 7 are available. Moreso than in previous weeks, these exercises directly address issues that are raised in lectures, and are hence highly recommended.

No Lecture Thursday 4 July.

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

Just a reminder: no COMP9024 lecture Thursday this week.

See you all at the mid-term examination, Friday. Best of luck.

Mid-session exam seating allocation + Thursday's lecture

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

A link to the seating allocation has been added to the Mid-session exam heading on the left. Please check it.

There will be no lecture on Thursday this week (i.e. 4th July). The consultation session will however go ahead.

Mid-session exam, consult and assignment

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

If you haven't selected one of the 3 sessions for the exam (to be held 5-7-19) , please do so today. If you don't, we will randomly allocate you to a session.

A reminder that from week 5 on there will be no Monday convenor consultations (they will happen only on Thursdays at 2pm).

Finally, a reminder that the first assignment is due on Saturday 29th. Make sure that your source code compiles with 'dcc' on the school network. Comment out anything that doesn't compile, and include a statement at the top explaining the problem.

Week 4 Exercises

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

I do appreciate most of you are working on the assignment, but I have posted Week 4's Exercises. The solutions to Week 3 will be opened at the end of the week.

Mid-session exam preference and consultation

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

There is a new link on the website for the mid-session exam. Please log onto this link and register your preference for the Week 5 Friday afternoon/evening timeslot that you wish to do the mid-session exam.

I will hold a consultation session on Thursdays from week 4 on. Please see the link on the course website for time and place.

I will also be available at the Monday consultation in week 4, but from Week 5 the Monday consult is cancelled.

Week 3 Exercises

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

Week 3's exercises are now available.

Assignment 1 submission procedure

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

It should now be possible to submit Assignment 1. A brief explanation can be found in the Assignment 1 document that is now reachable by clicking on the assignment link under Upcoming Due Dates on the top-right of the home page. The deadline is Saturday 29th June, 9pm.

Announcements about the assignment, weekly exercises, mid-session exam

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

• Assignment 1
  
  • A 'Testing' section has been added to the Assignment 1: STP document to help you organise your test cases
  • I will open the assignment submission process later this week
• Weekly exercises
  
  • The solutions to Week 2 exercises will be opened on Tuesday.
  • The Week 3 exercises will be released very soon
• The mid-session exam will be held on Friday 5th July, commencing some time after 4pm.

Lab is voluntary

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago, last modified 6 years ago.

Just a reminder that the lab, called Help-Lab on the course links on the left, is voluntary. There is no assessment or extra material associated with it. It is an opportunity to work with a tutor nearby.

New lab time and mailing list

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago, last modified 6 years ago.

The poll suggests that Thursday 11am-1pm a better time to hold the lab, so that is the new laboratory time for the course. It is in the Drum lab, in the basement of K17. It starts this week of course. The Monday lab is cancelled of course.

If you are receiving these announcements, but have left the course or are in the process of leaving, just contact Harrison or myself and we'll remove you from the mailing list.

Exercises and Assignment 1

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

• The Course Work pages on the website has been cleaned up.
• Exercises for Week 1 have been added. Solutions to these exercises are currently blocked.
• Exercises for Week 2 have also been added, but there may be more coming.
• On the Assignments link you will find the first assignment, which is determining whether a given sliding-tile puzzle is solvable. There is a 'tutorial' that you should do to understand how to play the game, and what is being asked of you.

Week1 Polling and Learn-C

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago.

If you haven't already done so, please activate your COMP9024 account in piazza. Piazza is the forum for discussion in the course, and where we can communicate with each other. Currently 60% of the course is activated.

Harrison has set up 2 polls in piazza : the first poll to see what the most favoured lab time is, the second to determine what the overall skill level in C is in the course. The second poll will help me work out at what level to pitch this course. It'll also help Kevin prepare for the labs.

I have opened Monday's lecture's wiki , and I have added a link to a learn-C website that might be useful to those of you who have never programmed in C before or struggle with the language. The lessons on this website are really short and simple, and require you to write a small amount of code. If you choose to do the learn-C tutorial, answer the piazza C-skill level poll question first.

I will be putting Week 1's Practice Exercises on the website over the next day or so.

In Thursday's lecture I will be going at a faster pace so having done some programming in C will make it easier to understand and (hopefully) more enjoyable.

COMP9024 start

Posted by Albert Nymeyer 6 years ago, last modified 6 years ago.

Welcome to COMP9024. I, Albert Nymeyer, am the convenor, Harrison Scott is the course admin, and the lab tutor is Kevin Luong. We hope you will learn a lot this course as we are looking forward to teaching it. Two announcements here:

1. The Lectures, Problem Sets and Assignment links are currently populated by 2018 material. I'll explain why I have done this in the first lecture. Rest assured, new material will be added as the term unfolds.
2. The second announcement is from Harrison: A course forum has been created using an external site called Piazza. You should have received an email earlier about activating your account. Piazza allows you to ask and answer questions during this course. You can be anonymous to other students when asking a question if you wish, or ask private questions viewable only by the course staff to avoid sharing solutions to assessable content. I recommend opting out of the "Piazza Network" recruitment feature in your account settings.