There will be a midterm exam (covering material from the first half of the course), a final exam (covering the entire course, with an emphasis on material from the second half of the course), and an optional repeat exam (covering the entire course, with roughly equal emphasis). The exams carry equal weight.
All exams will be open book and based on the material covered in lectures, readings, and projects.
To pass the course, a student must pass either
Students may choose to take the repeat exam even if they have passed the final exam, to try and improve their grade.
To be admitted to the final and repeat exams, a student must
To pass the project assignments, the sum of all points earned by a student in the project assignments must be at least 50% of the maximal possible points.
To pass the midterm exam, a student must score at least 30% of the maximum possible points in the exam.
To pass the final exam or repeat exam, a student must score at least 50% of the maximal possible points in the exam.
Your course grade will be based on a weighted score computed from the points you earn in your successful examinations and your project assignments.
If a student takes both the final exam and the repeat exam, then the exam with the lower result will not be considered when computing the course grade.
Project scores count towards 50% of the weighted score, and exam scores on the midterm and the final or repeat exam account for the remaining 50% of the weighted score.