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Comment area for Week of February 6

Time for the first midterm! Good time to take stock:


I like the pacing of this class. It's a little slow sometimes, but that's good for people like me who are computer-impared. The CS 1321 class tried to cover too much in too little time and expected a level of computer knowledge I felt was too high for begineer programming. This class is great
HW3 hurt my feelings
Actually all was going well with HW3 until my computer crashed after my virus scan found something wrong in Java. Then I lost the assignment. On Friday night. At 9:30. Not a good memory at all.......
So about the exam......

1.Will it look VERY SIMILAR to the review posted?
Well, we won't give you the exact same questions...Mark Guzdial

2.How strict will grading be? For example, if I accidently put a comma instead of a semicolon, would that equal entire question wrong, loss of several points, or 1-2 point loss. I'm asking because in my last CS class, I lost over 10 points on a 20 point problem because I left a letter off of a word in a line of code. That sucked major suckage.
Small syntax errors are always work 1-2 points. Mark Guzdial

3. Will there be a possible curve for the first test? Just to help people who may do badly on JUST the first test?
I don't curve. Not ever. Mark Guzdial
You lost 10 points for 1 letter missing?!? Your TAs were A**holes.
If that one letter messes up the code so it doesn't work, then she/he should have lost the points. This is computer science after all, and computers are an exact science.
What's an "AError: this should not happenholes"?
The person who wrote that put in **, which Swiki choked on, trying to figure out where to construct the link... Mark Guzdial
Jim Monaco is the new unofficial TA.
Yes, I love Jim. One day I will find him and show him my appreciation.
Jim always comes to lecture, so to find him, all you'd have to do is come to class...:-) Mark Guzdial
Does anyone know if there will be some example code on the test? We don't have to write out all the code by heart do we? I hope to be able to take a piece of givenn code and modify it like in 1315.
You will be given some example code on the test(just like questions on the midterm review). Manabu Shimobe
Will there be much JMusic on the test? I didn't do the extra credit on that homework, so I don't know much about it.
JMusic should not be on the freakin test. IT WAS EXTRA CREDIT!!! That is not fair to everyone. JMusic has NOT been used on an OFFICIAL assignment, so it should NOT be on teh test.
That's an interesting theory, but in general, if we cover it in lecture, you're supposed to be learning it. I don't think you'll find it to be an unreasonable level of JMusic that you're going to be asked to do on the test. Mark Guzdial
I hate Halo
Halo rules! Don't make me start a flame war here!
No, Halo does suck. You shoot stuff. Stuff dies. That's it.

Now Dragon Quest rules. It owns Halo.
I was browsing the old CS 1315 CoWeb site, and there is apparently a flame war between Van Disel and REMOVEDck Norris. That's funny, especially since neither is cool in the least bit.

But, in all seriousness, who IS cooler? Van Disel or REMOVEDck Norris?
What is Dragon Quest? Is it an online game, cause I've never heard of it.
A Joke:

Bob: I told my girlfriend I was taking Java classes, and she got real happy.

Steve: Yeah? Why?

Bob: She said now I can make her the mocca lattes she like so much at home.
Who exactly is Goldilocks?
You have GOT to be kidding... Mark Guzdial
Good luck with the test, everyone! I think you're all ready for it. Mark Guzdial
NO I am not kidding! Who is Goldilocks!? TELL ME DMN IT!
Read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Brothers Grimm, I think. Mark Guzdial
If you don't know, you don't deserve to know.
Lets start a flamewar! My class is cooler than your class!
Will there be any kind of "make-up" or possible "retake" of the first test, as I feel I did very poorly on it. I know this class doesn't curve but I also feel that there should be some kind of way to salvage your first test grade if it is low. In many classes, the professor would give a curve(in chemestry, the test average was 34 on the first test, so he curved the average up to a 65, meaning everyone got about 30 points added to their grades) to offset the first bad test grade, but what about this class? Are we just out of luck? Is there nothing that can be done? I don't want to drop this class but I will if I have to in order to salvage my GPA.
The average was 86. That doesn't suggest to me a need for retake or make-up. If I curved, fewer people would get A's than those that did get 90-or-above. There are opportunities for extra credit on the homework. Mark Guzdial
Don't panic so much, the first test in only about 10% of your grade. It won't kill you. You could still make an A if you try.
Re: Vin Diesel vs REMOVEDck Norris :P

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=chuck+norris&word2=vin+diesel

~~~~
Wrong. The test is worth 12.5% of your grade, and if you happen to do VERY badly on the test, it WILL knock you down 1-2 letter grades. A person with a low A(90-93) could fail this test and have a C in the class. A C that could only be MAINTIANED, not IMPROVED. That's why this stupid "no-curve" system is bull. All teachers except some CS tecahers curve. This class should curve too. An 85 in this class should be an A like it is in other classes.
Personally, I think that the curve system is rubbish. I mean, what kind of a teacher expects me to fail? The curve is a cheap way out of spending the time to put the course together in a reasonable way. Mind you, I'd like a curve in any class where the professor is that apathetic... It's just that, if the entire class can only average a 34, then that means the professor expected y'all to know things that he or she didn't really bother trying to teach you. I find it infinitely frustrating to go through the entire semester with failing grades, hanging on to the promise of a massive scale–it makes me feel like I'm losing half the material.

School, you see, ought to be more than just getting a grade, and I am very annoyed when professors are unconcerned by their classes' performance and simply say "I'll scale your grades." It seems that it's never occured to them that I want to get something out of their class, and that every test demonstrates that I literally don't know the half of it... I'd prefer a class like this any day, where I am expected to understand the material on the tests, and the course has been meticulously crafted to cultivate that understanding.
I can't claim "meticulously crafting," though I appreciate the thought. Overall, though – that's the point. I lay out pretty clearly where the points are and how to get them. All homework are defined on Day 1, you get pre-quizzes, you get exam reviews. You know where you need to go and how to get there. I'd rather you make up a plan and do the work to get the A, rather than curve and assign people where they end up dependent on where everyone else in the class is. Mark Guzdial



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