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Evaluation

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Academic integrity

Academic integrity is essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship in a university, and to ensuring that a degree from the University of Toronto is a strong signal of each student's individual academic achievement. As a result, the University treats cases of cheating and plagiarism very seriously. The University of Toronto's Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters) outlines the behaviours that constitute academic dishonesty and the processes for addressing academic offences. All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have questions or concerns about what constitutes appropriate academic behaviour or appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek out additional information on academic integrity from your instructor or from other institutional resources.

Your mark in the course

Your mark in the course will be based on your marks in the weekly homeworks (2% per homework submitted on time, 1% if up to 24 hours late), six term tests (each of 5 best count 11%), and a 1.5 hour final assessment (21%). In addition, there will be a bonus of up to 2% for particularly helpful responses to other students' questions on the online forum.

Homeworks

You will receive 2 points for each of the 12 weekly homeworks that you submit by the deadline. The deadline for submitting each homework is Tuesday 5pm. If you submit a homework late, but before Wednesday 5pm, you will get 1 point. Homeworks submitted after Wednesday 5pm will receive no credit. (There will be no exceptions to these deadlines.) Homework is "completed" if you answer every question and show how you obtained your answers; simply stating an answer is not sufficient.

Term tests

There will be six 40-minute term tests. Each test will be invigilated. You will need a camera (your phone will suffice). The emphasis in each test will be the material for the previous two weeks. However, much of the later material depends on the earlier material, so the material for the tests is effectively cumulative.

Test 1
Monday September 28, 4:10pm-4:50pm.
Test 2
Thurday October 15, 2:10pm-2:50pm. (Note day and time.)
Test 3
Monday October 26, 4:10pm-4:50pm.
Test 4
Monday November 16, 4:10pm-4:50pm.
Test 5
Monday November 30, 4:10pm-4:50pm.
Test 6
Thursday December 10, 2:10pm-2:50pm. (Note day and time.)

No aids, including calculators, will be permitted in any term test or in the final assessment.

Each of your best five marks in the six term tests will receive a weight of 11%. (Your lowest mark in the term tests will be dropped.)

There will be no makeups for missed tests for any reason.

Final assessment

Wednesday December 16, 9am-10:30am. This assessment will receive a weight of 21%.

Bonus

You will receive a bonus of up to 2% for particularly helpful responses to other students' questions on the online forum. To receive this credit, you must post your responses under your name (not anonymously).

Principles used in marking tests and exams

  • You must give reasoning to get credit for an answer. If you give the right answer without any explanation you will get 0. For a problem whose solution requires a mathematical argument, an "explanation" must contain words that indicate how your mathematical arguments are linked, and how they answer the question.

    If, for example, a question asks you to find the minimizer of the function x2, it is not sufficient to write "2x = 0, x = 0" or something like that. Instead, you need to incorporate your calculations into regular English sentences. You could write something like

    "The function is convex (because ...), so its minimizers are the values of x for which the derivative is zero. Differentiating with respect to x we obtain 2x, so the derivative is zero if and only if x = 0. Thus the minimizer of the function is x = 0."

    Or you could use more mathematical notation and write something like

    "Define the function f by f(x) = x2. Then f is convex (because ...), so its minimizers are the values of x for which f'(x) = 0. We have f'(x) = 2x, so f'(x) = 0 if and only if x = 0. Thus the minimizer of the function is x = 0."

  • You get 0 if you give two answers to a problem, one right and one wrong.
  • If you give the right answer and the right reasoning, but in addition add some incorrect reasoning, you will get less than full credit.
  • I do not take off points for poor English per se, but if the meaning of what you write is not clear you will lose points.
  • I do not penalize small errors in algebra unless they lead to arguments that are simpler than the ones that arise in their absence.
  • If you formulate a problem incorrectly, but use the correct methods correctly, you will not be penalized heavily unless your formulation leads to an analysis that is simpler than or very different from the one for the correct formulation.