Lab TAs will take attendance in their lab sections during the first two weeks of the quarter so we know who has attended which section. Remember, you must attend your priority lab section at least once during the first two weeks of the quarter or we may give your place to someone who is trying to add that section. Note you are still enrolled in the course even if we give your place in lab to another. So, if the reason you were not attending lab was that you intended to drop the class, you still need to drop the lab and the lecture officially. If you were just lax, then you will need to follow our enrollment procedures to add into another lab section. (See the Enrollment Information page for details.)

We will not take your attendance at lab into account when determining your grade. However, if you are absent from lab or discussion section, we have instructed the TA not to repeat just for you what s/he publicly told your section; such repetition unfairly burdens the TA and takes the TA’s time and expertise away from other students.

If you prepare to work on your lab assignments before you come to lab, and work diligently once there, you should have no difficulty finishing the assignments by the due date. Different people work at different speeds, but past experience shows that you will very liklely complete every lab in under 10 hours a week (provided, again, that you come prepared).

We accommodate a desire for additional lab time in two ways. First, you may attend a priority ICS 10A lab other than your own, provided that (a) there is a seat available and (b) your presence will not be disruptive to the section. (Of course you can–and should–attend your own priority lab section.) Each lab section’s TA, working within guidelines the instructor has set down, is the final authority as to who is, and is not, allowed to "sit in" a priority section.

Second is open lab. You may use the CS364 open lab any time it is open. (See ICS Computer Lab Hourss page for its hours.) Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no course staff on duty during open hours; the lab attendants on duty at those times are there to watch over the equipment and the room. They cannot help you with your assignments.

You may use the computers in CS192, CS189 and CS183 any time they are open and no priority lab is in session. (Again, see the ICS Computer Lab Hours page to learn when these labs are open.) You may not use these labs when no TA or lab attendant is present, or when other than an ICS 10A section is in session. The former case would violate School security regulations; the latter would be a disruption of a class that has no provision for dealing with your presence.

When an assignment is due, you turn it in via the Web using a system dome ICS folks built called Checkmate. You must have an active UCInetID to use it.

Go to Checkmate, at www.checkmate.ics.uci.edu, before the first assignment is due; follow the instructions to sign yourself up to turn in assignments for ICS10A. (If you get a message about security certificates, just click Continue) Then, by the time an assignment is due (see below), go to Checkmate to submit it.

Checkmate allows you to submit as many files as you like for an assignment, though it will only let you submit a few at a time. After you submit the first few files, you can then submit the next few files, and so on, until all of them have been submitted. (Our assignments should not require more than a file or two.) Each lab assignment describes what is to be turned in.

If you want to submit a newer version of your assignment the deadline, you can remove the files you originally submitted, then resubmit new versions.

For each assignment, we will grade only the most recent of the submissions that appear in Checkmate by the fifth day after the due date. We will not grade files submitted after that day has passed, nor will we grade files submitted via email or in paper form.

You are responsible for submitting the version of your project that you want graded. Accidentally submitting the wrong version, or forgetting to submit files, will not be considered grounds for a regrade.

Your work will be graded within a few days after it is turned in; your TA will let you know when the grades are available, and will be prepared to discuss your grade with you at that time. See your TA as soon as possible if you have questions about the grade you received–and no later than a week after the assignment has been returned, if you are asking for reconsideration of your work. Not that UCI policies prevent us from reconsidering your work oncethe class is over.

Many of the tasks we ask you to undertake in these labs do not have one right answer; they are often many reasonable approaches or solutions. In these situations, you will not be graded on whether your solution is the same as ours; rather, your grade will be based on whether your solution is a reasonable one, and on how well and clearly you have supported it. If there are additional or particular aspects to grading an assignment, the assignment discusses them.

We will grade your programs using the following six point scale. Note that if you get 4 points, we consider that full credit for the lab–if you get four points on every assignment, you will have 100% of the possible lab points. Notice that your grade depends on issues of style as well as those of correctness and completeness.

0 points  You did not turn in any work towards completion of the assignment. (For example, turning in a Word document with just your name on it does not earn any points.)

1 point  Work that is meager and poorly done. It would not be considered at all acceptable in academic or professional circles.

2 points  Work of reasonable quality and completeness. Shows a basic understanding of the material, but not a complete one. Presentation may be lacking (e.g., written work shows poor composition, a spreadsheet is hard to read, a database is poorly organized, a report is hard to follow)

3 points  Work of high quality which is complete and well presented, with perhaps a few minor errors and/or style problems; the grade for good, solid–but not extraordinary–work.

4 points  Work of very high quality that demonstrates a full and complete understanding of the material the lab covers and that is very polished in its presentation; normally the highest lab score awarded.

5 points  Work of the highest professional or academic quality; it would earn highest praise from a professional or professor. Expect this grade to be very rarely, if ever, awarded.

If it is difficult to determine whether your work is best represented by a score of x or x + 1 points (x ranging from 0 to 4), the TA may award a grade of x + 0.5 (that is, half points may be awarded). Expect this to be a rare event.

All of the exercises have optional work included. You may earn a lab score of 4.5 or 5 by doing this work well. Which score you receive will depend upon how much of the extra work you do and how well you do it. You cannot earn extra credit points unless the lab would have earned a 4 without the extra work being considered. Do be careful: if your undertaking of extra credit work results in an overall lowering of assignment quality, you will receive a lower score. (Imagine damaging a car while trying to install options: The car is now worth less than before the add-ons were attempted.)

You may also earn 4.5 or 5 points for doing an amazing job on a lab, as described above.

These extra points are added to your total, but not to the total possible number of points; thus, not undertaking this work will not hurt the lab portion of your course grade. (Note that lab assignment points do not "spill over" into exam points; even if extra points put you over 100% of the lab points, only 100% of the lab points will be counted when computing your course grade.)

In the table below, we list the name and date due for each lab, and what percentage each lab’s score contributes to total lab points:

All labs are due absolutely no later than 11:59 p.m. on their due date. Any work submitted after that time will be subject to a late penalty, as discussed below.

Any work you submit after 11:59 p.m. on the due date will incur a penalty of 1 point for each day or part of a day it is late. For example, if you earn 4 points and the assignment is two days late, your score will be 2 points (out of 4).

We will not penalize you for a late assignment if it is late because of significant circumstances beyond your control, such as an incapacitating illness or injury or a major emergency, and you make the instructor or your TA aware of these circumstances. Conflicts with due dates for your other classes or your job are not sufficient cause to lift the penalty. Should you be unable to turn in an assignment when due, it is best to notify the TA ahead of time and make arrangements for an alternative due date. If you cannot notify the TA ahead of time, turn in the assignment as soon after the due date as possible, and, if you think the penalty should be waived, include a written explanation of the unavoidable circumstance that prevented you from turning in the assignment when it was due.