Jukka Virtanen

Course Description:

PIC 10A is a five-credit course, with three hours of lecture and two hours of discussion every week. Recommended for students with no prior programming experience. Students with credit for PIC 10C will receive only two units of credit for this course. Topics covered include basic principles of programming using C++, algorithmic and procedural problem solving, program design and development, basic data types, control structures, functions, arrays, pointers, and introduction to classes for programmer-defined data types. No prior programming experience assumed.

Textbook:
"Big C++" by Cay Horstmann & Timothy Budd

Professor: Jukka Virtanen

Office: MS 5234
Office hours: Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday 1PM-2PM at PIC lab
Email: virtanen@math.ucla.edu



LECTURES
TIME: TBD
LOCATION: Kinsey Pavillion 1200B


TA: Natee Pitiwan
TA Office: MS 2903
TA Office hours: TBD
TA email: npitiwan@ucla.edu



DICUSSION SECTION:
Section Time Location TA
1a TR 12:00P-12:50P BOELTER 5419 Natee Pitiwan
1b MW 12:00P-12:50P MS 5128 Natee Pitiwan

Grading:

Your total grade will be calculated in two ways. At the end of the semester, the method that gives the higher numerical score will be used to determine your letter grade.

Option 1

Homework: 30%, Midterm I Exam: 20%, Midterm II Exam: 20% Final Exam: 30%

Option 2

Homework: 30%, Better Midterm Exam: 20%, Final Exam: 50%

Your overall average guarantees that you will receive at least the grade shown:
A [93,100] A- [90,93) B+ [87,90) B [83,87) B- [80,83)
C+ [77,80) C [73,77) C- [70,73) D+ [67,70) D- [61,63) D [63,67) F [0,61)

Grades will be curved. The curve can only help you. An A+ may be awarded for exceptional work throughout the quarter.

Midterms:

There will be two midterms, each counting for 20% of your course grade. Midterm I is scheduled for 07/17/2012 and Midterm II is on 08/06/2012. The exams will be given during our regular lecture time, but we may move to a larger classroom for the exam. The midterms will not be cumulative. In certain extraordinary circumstances you may be excused from taking a midterm. Prior notification and written documentation will be required. Even then, being excused from taking a midterm at the Professor's discretion. No make-up exams will be given; instead your final exam will be weighted more. Even though your lowest midterm score may be dropped, you are required to take both midterms. If you do not take a midterm and have no prior permission of the Professor to miss the midterm, you will not be able to drop the missed midterm.

Final Exam

The final exam is scheduled for 08/16/2012 11AM-2PM. The final will cover all of the material we covered in the course and counts for 30% of your course grade. Not taking the final exam will result in an automatic failing grade. In extreme situations an incomplete grade can be given at the Professor's discretion for missing the final, but the case must be reasonable and documented.

Homework:

There will be 8 weekly homework assignments during the semester. Check the class website for due dates and times. The homework will be submitted electronically using your PIC account. The homeworks are automatically collected at 5:00pm on the due date. No late homeworks will be accepted, for any reason. You must follow the directions and use the file names specified in the assignment, or else your submission will not be graded. Homeworks may not be submitted by e-mail. You are encouraged to use the resources in the PIC Lab to do your homework, as well as the TA and Professor. You may discuss the homework assignment with your classmates in general terms, but do not copy code or permit another student to copy your code. At the end of the semester, your lowest homework score will be dropped. You are solely responsible for:

PIC Lab

The PIC Lab is staffed during its open hours by undergraduate lab assistants. They are there to help with computer issues, not to debug your programs. If you need help with your assignment, you should ask the TA or the Professor. The computers in the lab are set up with the necessary software for completing and submitting your homework. You can work at your home computer, but you are responsible for using the same C++ compiler (Microsoft Visual Studio 2010) and correctly submitting your homework by remote FTP. Directions on how to do this are on the PIC website.

Reading Assignments

There will be recommended reading assigned on every lecture day. Complete the reading assignment before the next lecture. These assignments will be posted on the Reading Assignments webpage for this course.

Academic Honesty

You are encouraged to discuss aspects of the course with other students. You may also discuss the homework assignments in general terms with others. By general terms, I mean discuss ideas and plans of attack for solving the problems, not code. You must write your own independent solution. This will allow you to truly understand what you are doing. If you need more specific help, you may consult the TA or the professor only. You may not copy or cite in your homework solution anything written by someone else, unless it is found in your assigned reading, in my lectures, in my examples, or in a presentation by your TA in discussion section. Homework solutions will be monitored closely for plagiarism. Cheating of any kind is not tolerated. Please do not endanger your entire academic career by cheating.

OSD

It is recommended that OSD students contact the Professor as soon as possible to discuss and make any special arrangements. Accommodations such as quiet rooms and extended time for examinations are possible.

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