CS1101C Lab General Info

Lab CA (Continual Assessment)

1. Lab 0 is worth 5 marks. Attendance for Lab 0 is not compulsory.
2. Attendance for Labs 1 to 9 is compulsory.
3. Each of the labs 1 to 9 are worth 5 marks, consisting of:
   • Comments, indentation, choice of identifiers, program header containing your particulars: 1 Mark.
   • Correctness (includes modularity): 4 Marks.

Lab Header

1. You must include the following header in every C program that you submit. Fill in your particulars accordingly. Marks will be deducted for missing header or incorrect information. You can use copy and paste to save you from having to type it out manually.

/**********************************************************************/
/* Matric Number: U081234A and U089876B                               */
/* Userid: u0801234                                                   */
/* Lab: 0                                                             */
/* Lab Group Number: 99                                               */
/* Lab TA's Name: Ask him / her!                                      */
/* Lab Session Date: 27 August 2008                                   */
/* Lab Session Time: 1000 - 1045                                      */
/* Title: Give a good title.                                          */
/* Purpose: Give a good description of what your program does.        */
/**********************************************************************/

Lab Attendance

1. Attendance during the lab session is compulsory. If a student is absent, he/she will get no credit for the lab, even if a lab submission is made.

During The Lab

1. The lab question will be released every Tuesday 18:00 hours.

2. Discussion of the lab question is allowed, but no copying of code. You should also not discuss detailed algorithm as that will lead to code which are extremely similar and will be deemed as copying. This is not a groupwork project. Those who are caught copying code will be given zero marks, both the copier(s) and the provider(s) of the code. In addition, your home department will be informed of your misconduct and they may take further disciplinary action as deemed necessary.

3. Students must submit before the stated deadline of Friday 23:59 hours (giving you 78 hours or more than three full days to complete your work). It is highly recommended that you submit your program several times during the day. Do not wait until the last minute to submit your program. Even if you miss the deadline by one second, we cannot help you! The deadline is a hard deadline. This is to be fair to all students. Late submissions will strictly not be entertained.

4. You may use the "date" command in sunfire to check the system time.

Switching Lab Groups

1. If the switch is temporary (only for one lab session), inform your lab TA as well as the lab TA of the target group. But note that the lab group you wish to switch to may not have enough space for you. Priority is always given to students who are in their original lab groups. Switch at your own risk.

2. It is your responsibility to come to the lab on time, even if you have other classes before that.

3. If the switch is permanent, you must get permission from me.

Plagiarism

1. We take plagiarism very seriously. We will not hesitate to give you zero marks (both the copier and the provider) in the event that you are caught plagiarising. We use an automatic plagiarism checker to detect plagiarism among the hundereds of C programs that are submitted.

2. Do not ever send your C code to anyone. Your friend might not copy your code; but he/she may send it to someone else and that other person may copy your code. We will still penalise both the copier and provider in this case. You have been warned.

3. NUS takes a very serious view of plagiarism, and we will not hesitate to punish anyone caught plagiarising. This may include expulsion from the University. Please see the NUS Plagiarism video HERE.

Lab Tips

1. The labs (other than Lab 0) are not meant to be practice sessions. They assume you have already done all the practice you can get your hands on. That includes the lectures, by trying out and experimenting with the programs presented there, as well as the tutorials, and programming exercises. It is not good enough just to read C code. You must type it in, compile it, and run it!

2. Because of that, the labs look hard. Remember, they are meant as assessment, not as practice. So they will naturally be harder than mere practice questions. If you get enough practice, you will find the labs more manageable.

3. If Lab 1 is the only other time you have done any programming (apart from Lab 0), let me suggest that this is not the way to go since you will find it difficult to do, and you will be in trouble if the only time you touch the computer is when you have labs to submit.

4. If you think you have gotten enough practice, you would need to sit down and work out the algorithm first on paper using our problem solving methodology we discussed in the lecture, before attacking the keyboard. :)

5. Practice incremental coding. Don't write the entire program at once. Write small bits of it, save, compile, and test it. Then add on more and more parts to it. This is very important; else you will never be able to do programming properly!

6. You must know exactly what you are typing, and what your program is doing. Never use the "type anything and hope it works" approach. I can guarantee you that it will never work. Understand exactly what each line of code that you are typing will do. Programming without usage of brains and without understanding what's going on is a certain recipe for disaster.

7. If your program has some logic error, insert additional printf statements to print out the values of the variables that you suspect may be wrong. This helps in locating the error. Learn to fix errors on your own, instead of always relying on others.

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