Frequently Asked Questions

And Answers To Them

Labs

I missed a lab! What can I do about that?
Don't panic. There are twelve labs in all, of which only your best ten count.
I showed up late to a lab! What can I do about that?
That depends. Promptness is important, and some labs take less time to complete than others. If you're a little bit late, you may have trouble finding a partner, but you still may be able to get the lab done in the allotted 50 minutes. If the lab depends on you having a partner (all recommend having at least one partner, some require it), and you can't find any, you may be out of luck. If you show up after most students have finished the lab and gone away, you're likewise out of luck. The instructor and the TAs will not wait around for you.

Quizzes

Are calculators, phones, tablets, smart watches, or any other computational devices allowed at quizzes?
No.
What's covered on Quiz n?
Thirty of the problems on each quiz will be taken from lecture presentations for the five (or four, if a lecture was skipped owing to a holiday) lectures preceding the quiz. So:
  • Quiz 1 covers material from Weeks 1, 2, and 3;
  • Quiz 2 covers material from Weeks 4, 5, and 6;
  • Quiz 3 covers material from Weeks 7, 8, and 9;
  • Quiz 4 covers material from Weeks 10, 11, and 12.
Lecture presentations will be posted, as they become available, on the Notes page, which is protected by the course user ID and password (revealed in lecture in Week 1, and on printed copies of the course outline). The other ten quiz problems will be specific to the reading I have assigned for that same three-week period on a topic NOT covered in lecture. See the Syllabus page for details.
In how much detail should I know information?
Fairly detailed, but not excessively so. I will not, for example, ask you what year ENIAC was first turned on, but I may ask you for the name of the first general-purpose electronic computer, and note (by way of a hint) that it was first turned on in 1946.
What's the format of the quizzes?
Multiple choice or fill in the blank(s). Each quiz has 40 problems, and each problem is worth 1 mark (which translates to a 0.5 percentage point on your final grade in the course).
Are there any practice questions?
No.
Does Quiz n cover material already covered on a previous quiz?
No, but I will assume that anything covered earlier in the course (terms or concepts, for example) will be understood.
I did poorly on one or more quizzes. Is there any other work or extra assignment I can do to make up for that?
No.