I may also utilize some of the participation points to credit the occassional pop-quiz. Whereas, programs allow you to develop and practice your programming skills and gain hands-on experience, exams allow you to explore the extent to which you understand the theory and principles that underlying these problems. Graduate students will often have different problems to do. Graduate students will also be held to higher expectations of quality on other assignments. For example, I expect graduate technical writing to be of higher quality, with hypotheses and arguments supported with references to appropriate literature.
Attendance is required.
You are responsible for all material covered during the lectures whether you attend or not. If you must miss a class, be sure to get the notes from another student. Programming assignments will usually be collected electronically. Make-up exams will be given only in the case of a documented emergency or with approval from me at least 24 hours prior to the exam. Make-up exams are usually more difficult than the original exam .