CSCI 161 announcements: Spring 2013

Apr. 28th: Marks update
I've updated the posted assignment marks to include the bonus assignment (replacing your lowest other assignment mark).
Right now it looks like I should have the final exam marks posted on Tuesday.

Apr. 23rd: VIU email down?
EDIT: back up as of 3:40pm, all backlogged questions answered :-)
(Earlier msg:) Hmmm - I've had suspiciously little email today given the exam is tomorrow, and VIU IT has reported spam problems.
If you're sending last minute questions and not getting a response they're not getting through :-(

Apr. 17th: Marks posted
The marks for all 6 assignments and the two midterms are posted under gradebook. The midterms include the marks for the bonus quiz but I haven't yet included the the bonus assignment for those of you who submitted it.

Apr. 12th: Last year's final and office hours
My office hours over final exams will be as follows:
11am - 2pm on Wed. the 17th, Fri. the 19th, and Monday the 22nd.

There was a corrections page I attached to last year's final (dealing with questions 5 and 6). I've put a link to the corrections page on the cover to that exam.

Mar. 25th: Labex5 deadline extended
Just a slight change to the assignment deadlines - both lab exercise 5 and the bonus lab will be due at 10am on Monday April 8th. (Earlier I had listed labex5 as being due on the 5th.)

Mar. 22nd: Might be a bit late for lecture
Just a heads-up that I might be a couple of minutes late for the lecture on Friday March 22nd. (We'll be going over sample midterm solutions.)

Mar. 20th: Midterm solutions
I've posted a copy of midterm 2, I'll add sample solutions shortly and we'll go over them on Friday.

Mar. 12th: Old CSCI 160 page
If you're looking for last semester's 160 page from my class it has moved to here (csci160_2012)

Mar. 7th: Labex3 sample solutions
I've posted a labex3.C sample solution for lab exercise 3.

Updated: No office hours Fri. 1st
I'll be online if you have questions about the lab, but won't be in the office until Monday.

Feb. 26th: No office hours Wed. 27th
Ugh - I've got to cancel the Wed. office hours during Reading Break (truck broke down in Duncan last night - a pain when you live in Vic and work in Nanaimo!)

Feb. 22nd: Makeup quiz sample solutions
Here is a copy of the makeup quiz with sample solutions.
I have the quizzes marked, and the updated midterm results are posted online in gradebook.

Feb. 21st: Some advising thoughts
(1) Electives: For those of you planning a computer science degree, you may have noticed that over the course of the degree you need four "breadth" electives (from Social Science and Management), three "upper level" electives (courses from any area numbered 300 or above), and seven more general electives (any area, any level 100 or above). I strongly encourage you to look for things that are particularly interesting for you personally, but if you're still stymied I've put together a few lists based on what's been offered in the past year at VIU:
  - lower level breadth electives with no pre-reqs
  - upper level electives with no pre-reqs
  - some suggestions on electives relevant to a CS career
(2) Upper level CSCI courses: there are many third year courses (and one fourth year course) that most students are eligible to take in their second year of CS.
I've put together a table of what you are eligible for here.

Feb. 19th: Stack examples
If you missed either of the stack lectures (Friday the 15th or Wednesday the 20th),
be sure to check out the stack and bracket matching examples before the makeup quiz this Friday.

Feb. 18th: Marks on GradeBook
I've updated gradebook (accessible through your VIU student record) to include the marks from lab exercises 1 and 2 and the midterm.

Feb. 17th: Midterm 1 results and makeup quiz
I'll give back midterm 1 and go over the sample solutions in class on Monday (Feb. 18th).
Both the mean and median mark for the class were 16.5 out of 30, and there is clearly some confusion over some of the topics.

I'm going to offer a makeup quiz on Friday Feb. 22nd: one question worth 10 marks, with the results added to the sum of your midterm marks (to a maximum of 100% on the two midterms). The quiz question will involve stacks, classes, and file I/O. NO NOTE SHEETS WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THE QUIZ.

Feb. 17th: Lab exercises 3 and 4
The deadline for labex3 has been extended to the day after reading break (to 10am Monday March 4th).
Lab exercise 4 has also been simplified somewhat (removing the dynamic binding aspects).

Feb. 12th: Sample solutions
The midterm prep page now includes links to sample solutions for many of the posted practice questions (old midterm, final, quizzes, etc)

Feb. 9th: Labex2 sample solutions
I've posted a LList.C sample solution for lab exercise 2.

Feb. 9th: Practice problem solutions
I've posted some sample solutions to the in class problems we were looking at Wed/Fri.

midterm practice
I've updated the midterm page to include links to a variety of practice questions (towards the bottom of the page).

labex1 sample solution posted
I've posted a sample solution for lab exercise 1, please have a look at the level of comments I think appropriate for the assignment. I did not deduct much in the way of style/standards marks for labex1, but will be deducting marks for this starting with lab exercise 2.

There will be labs during week 1
Even if your first lab comes before the first lecture, be sure to attend!

Tech notes for students
This guide covers useful tidbits, such as card key access, logging in from home, what to do if your disk quota is exceeded, using the csci graphical programs (gedit, wish, etc) from home, etc. etc.