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CMPT 111 2010-2011 Term 1

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming

Welcome to your first day in CMPT 111. This handout provides the basics on the class: where and
when, how to reach the instructor, what topics are covered, and how you will be evaluated. After today,
the course website (moodle.cs.usask.ca) will be the place to get all the information you need about the
class (notes, assignments, lab material, special topics, resources, EHandin, announcements etc).

The course objectives:


1. Introduce Computer Science as a science.
2. Provide students with the fundamental skills of programming.
3. Prepare students for follow-on courses in Computer Science.

Lectures:
Section Location Days Time Instructor email
01 Arts 133 Mon-Wed-Fri 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM Keith McIlmoyl keith.mcilmoyl@usask.ca
03 Arts 263 Tue-Thurs 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM Ian McQuillan mcquillan@cs.usask.ca
05 Arts 134 Tue-Thurs 1:00 PM – 2:20 PM Michael Horsch horsch@cs.usask.ca

Labs/Tutorials:
Section Location Day Time
T01 THORV S311 Mon 1:00 PM – 2:20 PM
T03 THORV S311 Mon 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
T05 THORV S311 Mon 4:00 PM – 5:20 PM
T07 THORV S320 Mon 1:00 PM – 2:20 PM
T09 THORV S320 Tues 12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
T11 THORV S311 Wed 4:00 PM – 5:20 PM
T15 THORV S320 Thurs 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
T17 THORV S320 Tues 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM
T19 THORV S320 Wed 11:30 AM – 12:50 PM
T21 THORV S320 Fri 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM

Grading
Assignments: 30%
Term-test 1: 10% (Oct 13)
Term-test 2: 15% (Nov 10)
Quizzes: 5%
Final exam: 40%

Course work
Failure to "complete the assigned course work" will result in failure of the course. It is the
instructor's responsibility to define what it means to "complete" the course work. In this course, we
consider the “course work” to consist of the term tests and the assignments.

You must write both tests. If you miss one of the tests, you must contact your instructor to make an
alternate arrangement.

You must obtain an average grade of 50% over all assignments to pass the course.

Assignments
CMPT 111 will have regular assignments; they will usually be weekly, except for weeks with tests; the
final assignment will require more than one week to complete. The assignments are designed to
practice the concepts covered in the week preceding the assignment. Each assignment will be done on
the computer. Each assignment will have 2 components; a “problem solving” component and a
“programming” component. Everything will be handed in using EHandin
(https://www.cs.usask.ca/ehandin).

Make sure to plan ahead and leave adequate time to deal with short-term disruptions (e.g., busy labs,
etc.). Assignments will be due on Friday at 5:00PM. Because the schedule for grading is so tight, late
submissions will NOT be accepted.
Term-tests
The term-tests will be 90 minutes and will be held during the late afternoon/evening. Test one will be
held on October 13th. Test two will be on November 10th. You will have the choice to write the test at
5:00PM, 5:30PM or 6:00PM. Make sure that you make alternate arrangements with your instructor if
you absolutely can NOT write either one of these tests at the available times. You will be able to sign
up for a test-writing time at least a week before each test.

Quizzes
There will be a quiz every week, more or less. The quizzes will cover material from the preceding
lectures and will be fairly short. You are expected to score fairly high on these; tests and exams will
certainly be more challenging and comprehensive. A quiz score is an indicator. If you don’t get a
perfect score (or nearly perfect), there are concepts that are unclear to you and you should ask about
them in class.

Textbook
Cay Hostmann, C++ for Everyone, Wiley 2009. ISBN: 978-0-470-38329-2 Available in the U of S
bookstore. (recommended but NOT required)

Labs/Tutorials
Some of the content of CMPT 111 will be delivered in labs rather than in lectures. In particular, a
significant portion of instruction about the C programming language will occur in labs, not in lectures.
This means that you must attend labs to learn this material.

Lecture attendance
The course is designed such that each week depends on material covered in previous weeks. If you
were absent from a lecture it is your responsibility to learn the material you missed. If you don’t catch
this material up, you risk not understanding the material that follows. A misconception that is not
corrected as soon as possible could jeopardize your marks later in the course.

Academic Honesty
We take academic honesty very seriously in CMPT 111. We encourage collaboration and research, but
any form of plagiarism is unacceptable. Please take a look at the website below for detailed information
on the department's policy: www.cs.usask.ca/academichonesty. The policy tries to show you what is
and is not acceptable. We use sophisticated software to analyze assignments for plagiarism, and this
software is very good at catching it. Please do not make the mistake of thinking you can get away with
copying. We catch dozens of students every year.

Registration
It is required to be officially registered in the class to be able to attend the lectures and/or the labs and
receive credit for the course.

Final Exam
Failure to write the final exam will result in failure of the course. This means that you can miss an
exam for medical reasons, but you will have to write a supplemental before a passing grade can be
assigned. If you miss a final exam, arrange for a supplemental exam as soon as possible. And if you
miss an exam, for whatever reason, don't be too stressed. Remember, we want our students to pass!

Failure to achieve a mark of at least 40% on the final exam will result in an automatic failure of
the course. This means that you can do very well on assignments and quizzes, but if you don’t know
the material well enough to pass the final, we will not give you a passing grade.

Exams can be stressful. Writing “practice finals” will help reduce your stress levels, by giving you an
opportunity to visualize the process. Also, there are workshops available on campus to help you
develop your own strategy for dealing with the stress of exams. Be proactive, and learn to work with
the system!
Course Topics and Schedule (Subject to change)

Because of the lack of uniform background, we have to start with material that some students covered
in high school. It may seem that these students have an advantage. Don’t be too concerned about
this. There are many good Computer Scientists who never used a computer the way we do today, or
who didn’t study programming in high school. Before the end of first year, any advantage gained in
high school will be caught up!

Sept. 7-10: Introduction, Tasks, Data, Algorithms


Sept. 13-17: Expressions, Variables, Sequential Tasks
Sept. 20-24: Conditionals
Sept. 27-Oct 8: Iteration
Oct 11: Thanksgiving day, University closed
Oct. 11-22: Arrays
Oct. 18-22: Problem Solving, Procedures
Oct. 25-29: Debugging
Nov. 1-5: Recursion
Nov. 8-12: Binary Numbers
Nov 11: Remembrance day, University closed
Nov. 15-19: Records
Nov. 22-26 Searching
Nov. 29-Dec 3: Sorting & Review

University Learning Center Resources


The University Learning Center provides many services for students to help them manage their time
and assist them with specific skills. The also organize “Structured Study Sessions,” which are peer-
assisted study groups targeted at specific courses. This year, CMPT 111 is participating in this
program again. More information will be provided by the SSS. Students should note that the ULC and
SSS are separate from CMPT 111; the sessions are not scheduled by the instructors, and the
instructors do not play any role, other than generally being supportive of the program. It’s really an
opportunity to organize your study time, discuss course material in an environment that is not subject to
evaluation by the instructor or the teaching assistants.

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