[Unified-mailman] C/P problems this term

[Howard Kleinwaks]

Students,
Problem set 7 is now posted, and it contains your first computers and
programming problems of the term.  We will be handling the computers and
programming problems slightly differently this term.  Instead of one
problem per lecture, you will be receiving one problem per week that is
designed to cover all the lectures in the week.  The problem is designed to
take one hour for every hour of lecture (for example, this week's problem
covers lectures 2-4, and therefore should take about 3 hours).  It will be
graded proprtionally as well - this week's problem will be out of 30
points, if there were only two lectures covered, the problem should take 2
hours and would be out of 20 points.

There are a couple of reasons why we are operating in this manner this
term.  Last term, there were some computers problems that took more time
than they should have, and some that took less time.  It tended to be the
problems that were code-heavy took a lot more time.  By grouping them all
together, we feel that you will be better able to manage your time in line
with the time we are expecting you to spend on the problems.  Also, we did
not think it was fair to give equal grades to problems where one may have
taken you 2 hours, and one may have taken only 30 minutes.  By grouping
them all together, we can give the proper weighting to each part of the
problem.

Also, the electronic submission guidelines are on the web
(http://web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/) - please follow them or else it will
be difficult to grade your problems.

Finally, remember that the earlier you start the CP problems the better, as
debugging can sometimes take a lot of time.  I'll be available to help
during most office hours, and our undergrad TA's who speciallize in
programming (and therefore can help you debug) will be here during Sunday
office hours.  Please don't hesitate to ask if you need help.

If you have any questions on this process, please feel free to ask me or Carl.
-Howie