CMSC 202 Project Grading

After the final deadline for submitting a project, your project will be graded for correctness and adherance to CMSC 202 coding standards. After all projects are graded, you will recieve an e-mail from the gradeskeeper. A grade form will be attached to the e-mail. The grade form details the point deductions and penalties for your project.

Once your project is submitted, you should be careful to not change the time and date of any files you submitted (i.e. don't open them and then save them with an editor). The time and date of your files may be critical in resolving some unusual grading situations.

Correctness

Correctness counts 85% of each project grade.

Correctness includes the following aspects of your project. The weight assigned to each of these aspects of correctness may be different for each project.

  1. Your project must produce the correct output.
    When tested with valid input, your project must produce the results specified in the project description. The output must conform to the format specified in the project description.
    When tested with invalid input, your project must handle the error(s) in the manner specified in the project description.

  2. Your project must exhibit acceptable object-oriented and top-down design.
    Any classes you create for your project must follow the OO design principles of encapsulation and data hiding.
    All code you write (especially the code in ProjN.cpp) must exhibit acceptable top-down design.

  3. Your design document must meet all design document requirements.
    See design grading document for details. Specific design document requirements will be provided for each project.

  4. Your project must meet all project specific requirements.
    Project descriptions may contain requirements regarding class methods, input values or format, how data must be stored, etc. Your project must satisfy all such requirements.

  5. Your project may not violate any project specific restrictions.
    Project descriptions may contain restrictions regarding object design, use of friend functions, etc. Your project may not violate any of these restrictions.

Adherance to Coding Standards

Adherance to CMSC 202 coding standards accounts for 15% of each project.

It is your responsibility to read and understand the coding standards document. A summary of the coding standards is also available.

General Deductions

The following penalties apply to all projects and are in addition to those listed above for correctness and coding standards.
  1. A late project recieves a score of zero.
    The time and date of your project is determined by the time and date of the last file submitted.
  2. 50 points for a compiler or linker error(s) resulting in no executable being created.
  3. 10 points for a late or missing design document.
  4. 5 points for a compiler or linker warning(s)
  5. 5 points for a makefile error which requires the grader to manually compile/link your project.
These guidelines are for projects where a good effort was made. Garbage will receive 0%.

Project Grade Changes

Visit your instructor during regular office hours (or make an appointment) to request a project grade change when you think the grader has made a mistake. Come prepared to show your instructor evidence of the grader's specific mistake. Project grades will not be changed just because you think the grader has deducted too many points for a line item on the grade sheet.

Don't waste your time or your instructor's time by asking for a grade change just because you're not happy with your grade.

Remember that if you have a question regarding your project grade, you have exactly one week from the receipt of your grade to speak to your instructor in person.

Project Regrades

In some unusual circumstances you may recieve a low project score because of a single, simple error that results in many incorrect outputs or results in a compiler/linker error. The definition of "simple error" is determined by your instructor. In such cases, your instructor may (at his discretion) allow you to fix the simple mistake and have your project regraded.

A 10-point deduction is assessed when your project is regraded.