Assignments and Exams

There will be weekly homework assignments due on Wednesdays before class starts. Late homework will not be accepted. I will, however, drop the lowest homework grade. Emailed homework will not be accepted unless under very extraordinary circumstances.

I expect that most of your learning will take place while doing the homework, and it will be a component of your final grade. The remainder of your grade will be based on two prelims and a final exam.

The exam dates shown on the syllabus are tentative. The prelims might be held in the evening. These decisions will be taken close to the actual exam dates.

Due to constraints on our resources, it is possible that not all homework problems are graded.

Writing

Your solutions should be legible and neat, and the pages should be stapled together. Do not shuffle pages or problems: your solutions should appear in order. Don't turn in your first draft.

Collaborating

You are doing the homework to learn the material. Copying someone else's homework or copying solutions from the internet or elsewhere and presenting them as your own defeats the purpose of homework (and violates Cornell's Academic Integrity Code). Your documents may be submitted to the Turnitin.com reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. Your exam solutions may be photocopied.

Collaboration with classmates on the homework is allowed, provided it improves learning to all people involved. One person simply telling another how to do a problem defeats the learning goal. You should give credit to any collaborators. Use of outside sources is permitted only for the purpose of expanding your knowledge. Obtaining solutions from outside sources is not permitted.

You get maximum benefit from a homework problem if you work hard on it alone before combining your ideas with someone else's. In any case, the paper that you turn in with your name on it should represent your own solutions, written in your own words, regardless of whether you arrived at some of those solutions in collaboration with others.

Collaboration on the exams is not allowed.

Course materials

The exams and all course materials are intellectual property belonging to the author. Students are not permitted to sell or distribute any course materials. Such unauthorized behavior constitutes academic misconduct.