COMP9024 Notices

Final Result

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 01 September 2020, 03:33:47 PM.

Your result in the exam and course are now available on WebCMS3 or from your CSE account using

9024 classrun -sturec

• Exam: Your mark for the exam.
• Grade: Your mark and grade for the course.
• Rank: Your rank in the course.
• Total: Your total score in accordance with the Assessment Summary .

To pass the course, your exam mark must be ≥25 and the sum of the marks for the individual assessment components must be ≥50

You can obtain detailed feedback on your marks for the final exam on WebCMS3 by clicking on the little arrow in the row labelled ExamScoresheet as indicated below:

or by using:

9024 classrun -collect ExamScoresheet 

Unfortunately I cannot reopen the Moodle exam for review since variations of these questions may be reused in another form in future exams. But if you did not pass the course and have further questions about your marks then you can email me personally.

Congratulations to the following students for scoring 95 or higher:

Simon Sillitoe
Qiaohui Lin
Zhuolin Li
Dennis Mok

Well done!

Enjoy your term break, stay healthy and best of luck with your future studies.

Michael

Reminder: final exam begins in 1 hour

Posted by Michael Thielscher Monday 24 August 2020, 12:56:07 PM.

Dear COMP9024 Student,

This is just a gentle reminder that the final exam will commence in about 1 hour on Moodle:

https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=51287

You must start your exam within the first five minutes to get the full 2 hours + 10 minutes.

On behalf of the entire COMP9024 20T2 staff I wish you best of luck,
Michael

Assignment statistics

Posted by Michael Thielscher Sunday 23 August 2020, 12:25:27 PM.

Some statistics for the assignment;

Average mark: 8.15 / 12

Easiest test scenarios: test 1 (89%), test 2 (88%)
Most challenging tests: test 10 (28%), test 9 (35%)

Assignment marked

Posted by Michael Thielscher Saturday 22 August 2020, 05:21:02 PM.

You can now fetch your marked assignment, with some feedback, from WebCMS3 (click on the small arrow in the same row as assn ), or by using

9024 classrun -collect assn

I thought you might be interested in the details about the ten test cases that were used for scoring. You can find these under Assignment -> FAQ. Kudos especially to everyone who managed to hop on and off the B-Line often enough to get to Mona Vale as quickly as possible (test10)!

If you have any further question about your assignment mark, please contact our tutor Kevin; see Assignment -> FAQ.

Early due date assessment week 10

Posted by Michael Thielscher Sunday 09 August 2020, 11:45:37 AM.

Just a quick reminder of the early due date for your program randword.c at 11am tomorrow ( Monday ).

Meanwhile I was happy to see the response rate on myExperience surpassing the 60% mark. If you still wish to let us know about your experience in this course, and in particular you thoughts on online teaching, you can do so until Wednesday.

Michael

Reminder: Virtual help lab

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 16 July 2020, 10:29:41 AM.

A reminder about the virtual help lab in case you are having difficulties with the assignment. For the exact dates and times see Consultations ; today's help lab will be from 11am-12noon. If you use unsw.to/hopper to register your question, please ensure that you log into the virtual room on Blackboard Collaborate at that time ( Moodle → Assignment Consultation).

Mid-term test marks - 2nd update

Posted by Michael Thielscher Monday 13 July 2020, 05:10:44 PM.

An unfortunate and rather significant bug on Moodle had the effect that the marking for two of the questions (Q4 and Q6) was ignoring the selection of a wrong option. We decided that we didn't want to lower any marks after they had been released, which is why we have added a small bonus mark (25%) for everyone who not only got the right answers right but also did not choose a wrong one (or 12.5% bonus for not ticking one wrong answer). Everyone who did not already get a higher mark than originally intended for these two questions can now see their updated midterm result on WebCMS with the bonus mark included. Note that this had to be done outside of Moodle, where the mark is still the same. Only the mark shown on WebCMS will count towards your overall mark for this course.

Assignment released

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 10 July 2020, 02:37:32 PM.

According to a classic German saying, "After the game is before the game". The assignment has now been released and can be found on the course webpage under Assignment . The main topic is problem solving with graph data structures and graph search. Since the assignment gives you a lot of freedom to develop your own approach to the problem, readability of your program will be very important. Please make sure to adhere to the principles of structured programming and use good commenting.

The assignment is due on Monday 3 August at 11:00am (week 10). If you have difficulties with the assignment, our tutor Kevin Luong will be available over the next three weeks for regular virtual help labs:

• Wednesday, 1–3pm (Weeks 7, 8 and 9)
• Thursday, 11–12noon (Weeks 7 and 8)
• Thursday, 10–12noon (Week 9)

You can participate through a link on Moodle. Attending these virtual help labs is entirely voluntary. More details will be given at the next lecture on Tuesday.

Finally, before you start working on your assignment, pay heed to the following advice from the Tao of Programming (Book 3):

Thus spake the Master Programmer:
"When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes."

Have fun and good luck,
Michael

Mid-term Question 6

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 09 July 2020, 06:02:48 PM.

There was an unintended typo in one of the variations for Question 6. Everyone who found that the code was erroneous because it said list->next instead of the expected head->next : This has already been fixed and your result updated.

Michael

Mid-session test today (Thursday, 9 July)

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 09 July 2020, 11:28:44 AM.

Just a reminder that the mid-session test will take place today between 4:30pm and 5:35pm.

Please note that the way we login to Moodle has changed overnight: You now sign on to Moodle by using your zID with @ad.unsw.edu.au added, for example: z1234567@ad.unsw.edu.au

• The mid-session test opens at 4:30pm and has a duration of 1 hour from when you start your test.
• The test will automatically close at 5:35pm the latest, which means you must start before 4:35pm in order to get the full 1 hour.
• There will be 10 questions in the same format as in the Moodle quizzes in this course (mix of: multiple choice with =1 or ≥1 correct answers, numerical answers, short text answer).
• Please be aware that the Moodle server may lag at the very beginning as other students log in. Should this be a serious issue, the time remaining for you to finish the test will be automatically extended.

Best of luck everyone,
Michael

Week 4 Quiz Marks Updated

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 30 June 2020, 06:59:52 PM.

I realised that it may not have been entirely clear under which assumptions the storage costs should have been determined in quiz question 3, and the more efficient matrix encoding does in fact turn it into the most cost-efficient solution of all three. I will therefore count both answers as correct, and if this is how you answered the question then you should now see your updated mark both on Moodle and on WebCMS.

Study Groups

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 30 June 2020, 11:46:04 AM.

A review of the study groups shows that some of the groups have lost members or have inactive members.

If your study group is down to 3 (or fewer) active members and you would like to amalgamate with another group, then please contact the Course Administrator via email at michael.schofield@unsw.edu.au . Please include the names and zIDs of all students wishing to participate.

Week 3 Results

Posted by Michael Thielscher Wednesday 24 June 2020, 01:52:37 PM.

Your marked assignment for Week 3 is now available on WebCMS.

A few comments on the results:

• The auto-testing did include a check whether all dynamically allocated memory was free()'d. Half a mark (= 25) was deducted from the overall result when a program was found to have memory leaks.
• No marks were awarded for a program that produced the correct output by means other than a dynamic linked list, e.g. an array. Nice try but, as you can see, can be detected. Please ensure that your programs always comply with the specification.
• Sadly, two cases of plagiarism, one of which is mandatorily categorised as serious and therefore passed on to UNSW Conduct & Integrity, since there was a deliberate attempt to disguise the plagiarism. We are a large class but two is still two too many. As I promised early on, in the interest of all of you, this will not be accepted.

Weekly assessment questions

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 18 June 2020, 11:32:05 AM.

Over the past 12 hours or so there have been several questions on the forum about this week’s assessment questions, e.g. whether one’s solution is correct or how to handle specific cases.

Please refrain from doing this. You should always solve these problems according to your own best understanding of what is required, just like you would in an exam. Only in case you think something is wrong you should email us, but not post on the forum or otherwise discuss with your classmates.

Prac assessment week 1 result

Posted by Michael Thielscher Wednesday 10 June 2020, 02:37:51 PM.

If you have made a test submission for week 1, then the auto-testing result is now available on WebCMS3. By clicking on the little arrow indicated below you can inspect the result and see what test cases were used:

Keep in mind that this was just a "mock" assessment and "Mark" does not count towards your mark for the weekly assessment component.

Some common errors that I noticed, and hints on how to avoid them:

• Programs did not compile without error or warning. A common warning was, "unused variable". It is bad programming practice to declare variables that are not used. The auto-tester is very strict in that it refuses to compile programs with even a single warning like this or any other.
  Solution: Always ensure that your programs compile on a CSE machine with all the options -Wall -Werror -std=c11 as required. A good way to check this is dryrun .
• The output had small syntax errors, e.g. "Enter a positive number" instead of the required "Enter a number". A good way to check this is dryrun .
• Programs submitted after the deadline did receive a testing score but were awarded 0 marks. Solution: Submit by the deadline.

Study Groups Now Available

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 04 June 2020, 06:34:40 PM.

If you have answered the survey, you have now been assigned to a study group. Please log into Moodle and click on Study Group Forum. You can then start a round of introductions:

The Study Group Forum on Moodle will be available throughout the term, but of course you are free to also arrange for other ways to meet.

Please keep in mind that the purpose of the study group is to work on problem sets and conduct review of the course material. However, all assessments will be individual submissions and the Academic Integrity rules will be strictly applied.

When communicating in online learning systems you are expected to follow the same standards of behaviour as you would in a classroom:

• Be respectful of your fellow students and staff.
• Value the opinions of others. While you should feel free to present your own point of view you must not denigrate the views of others.
• Use appropriate language and never use language that could be found offensive.
• Never attack others personally.
• Don’t act in a way that could constitute harassment, bullying or discrimination.
• Beware of using CAPITAL LETTERS when posting. The use of CAPS can be interpreted as shouting.
• Use humour or sarcasm very carefully as this can often be misinterpreted.

Study Group Survey Extended Until Tonight, 11pm

Posted by Michael Thielscher Wednesday 03 June 2020, 02:22:17 PM.

We have a high response rate (around 60%) to our study group survey. For everyone who missed the deadline but still wants to be assigned a study group, we have extended the survey until tonight (Wednesday, June 3) at 11pm:

Study Group Survey

You will need to login with your zID and zPass. Based on your answers we will then build balanced study groups over the next 1-2 days.

Welcome to COMP9024: Data Structures and Algorithms

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 29 May 2020, 03:00:24 PM.

Dear COMP9024 Student,

Welcome to this year's course.

This is a reminder that our course will begin in week 1 on Tuesday (2 June) from 4-6pm.

Meanwhile check out the course webpage webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP9024/20T2/ . Have a look at the "Course Outline" to learn more about the contents of the course, the assessments and recommended textbooks.

As you undoubtedly are aware, unfortunately we will not be able to have face-to-face lectures on campus. From the feedback I received for COMP9020 in 20T1, I know that many of you did sorely miss the interaction with your lecturer and your classmates. We will try to make up for this in COMP9024 as best we can by:

1. Livestream lectures. Please see "Livestream and recordings" on the course webpage on how to access these. I very much encourage you to attend the livestream every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-6pm. You can use the chat function to ask questions -- and to give answers to short in-class exercises. All lectures will of course be recorded and made available on Echo360 afterwards
2. Study groups. You will have the opportunity to be in a Study Group of 5-6 students where you can work on homework exercises and conduct reviews of course material prior to assessments, quizzes and exams. These are self-organised but we will facilitate the formation of study groups. If you wish to be assigned to a study group, please fill out a short questionnaire on Moodle:
   Study Group Survey (requires login credentials)
   The survey will close on Wednesday, 3 June, at 11am. If you do not wish to be assigned to a study group then please do not complete this survey.

You will see me on Tuesday,
Michael