Exam, Tests, and Assignments#
Grading#
Your final course grade will be based on two elements:
Written examination in December (with a weight of 2/3)
Assessment of four homework sets (with a total weight of 1/3)
You will be provided a (partial) grade on the Danish 7-point grading scale for each of these two elements. You have passed the course if both (partial) grades are at least 02. From these two (partial) grades your final course grade will be computed as a weighed average, rounded to the nearest grade on the grading scale (rounding up in case of an average exactly in-between two grades).
Components that Influence the Course Grade#
Weekly Tests and Bonus Points#
During weeks without theme exercises you are offered a Weekly Test to test yourself in the content of the week. The Weekly Test takes place during the final hour of the Short Day, Fridays 16:00-17:00. The Weekly Tests are not mandatory, but by completing them you can earn bonus points that will count towards your grade.
Scoring at least 60 % correct in a Weekly Test within the given hour (16:00-17:00) will earn you 1 bonus point. You have one attempt within this hour. In case you do not pass the test, then it will reopen at 18:00 Friday evening and stay open until Wednesday at 18:00 in the following week. Within this period you have a unlimited number of attempts, and scoring at least 60 % correct on any attempt will earn you 1/2 bonus point.
The Weekly Test of semester week 1 is a trial and won’t give bonus points. In total you can earn a maximum of eight bonus points during the semester which will be added as percentage points to your exam result before grading. Roughly, if you score, say, 65 % at the written exam in December and you are bringing with you, say, 6 bonus points from the semester, then your (partial) grade from the written exam will be computed based on an adjusted result of 71 %. See more about the written exam below. Note: Bonus points are not a part of reexaminations.
Rules for all Weekly Tests:
This is an on-location test, meaning you must be physically present in the study area.
Electronic aids are not allowed, except for a computer for typing answers into the Möbius quizzing system.
You must enter full-screen mode so the test fills your entire screen.
A teaching assistant will provide a code for test activation at 16:00 (in week 1 the trial test will not require a code).
If you encounter technical issues, then use Firefox or Chrome, and disable adblocker.
We recommend using the wireless network “DTU Secure”.
You may discuss the test questions with follow students at your table but note that you have your own version of the questions that you must solve and enter in Möbius individually.
Homework Assignments#
There will be four homework sets during the semester. A homework set consists of two parts:
A written assignment that you find via a link on the website (on the semester overview). This assignment must be uploaded as a pdf to DTU Learn (under “Assignments”) before the deadline. Deadline is shown on the website, on Learn, as well as within the homework set document.
A Möbius test that opens at 17.00 o’clock the Friday before the assignment deadline and closes the following Wednesday at 23:55.
In the Möbius test only the correct answer is to be typed into the Möbius quiz system. This test will include topics from the Theme Exercise from the same week (see more about Theme Exercises below).
In the assignment all answers must be explained and all necessary parts of computations and reasoning must be presented. Focus will be on your ability to formulate mathematical writing and to reason towards logical conclusions in a mathematically correct and precise manner. A perfect assignment is concise and contains all necessary explanation, and nothing more than that. Your assignment is individual, in the sense that you are allowed to work together with other students about solution strategies but your final delivery must be formulated by yourself in your own words. Close-to identical solutions will be considered plagiarism. The first two homework assignments must be completed manually, meaning without any electronic aids for computational work. You may write the assignment by hand and then scan it in for delivery, or you may use a text editor to formulate your assignment, such as Word, Write, Latex or the like. Note that you at the written exam in December must solve problems purely by hand with paper and pencil.
NB: On the last Long Day before a homework assignment deadline the teachers are ready to answer your conceptual questions about the homework in the timeslot 15:30-16:00. The teachers will not answer questions directly concerning solutions, and the teachers do not answer any homework-related questions outside of this timeslot.
Theme Exercises#
Four times during the semester the usual lessons are replaced by Theme Exercises. The purpose of the Theme Exercise is to provide examples of how Python programming can be used in the course and how terms and methods from the course can be applied in engineering-relevant applications.
Theme Exercises take place on four Short Days in the usual study areas. On a day with a Theme Exercise, the usual lesson activities are cancelled - so no usual exercises, lecture, nor Weekly Test. All four hours of the Short Day time slot are instead reserved fully for your own dedication into the Theme Exercise.
The Theme Exercise will be uploaded to the website a few days before the Short Day in question. Note that the Theme Exercise is not to be handed in - rather, the terms and methods that you use and learn by completing the Theme Exercise are needed for answering the Möbius test of an upcoming homework set (see above).
We advise you to form groups to work on the Theme Exercise with. Keep in mind, though, that the Möbius test for the homework will give you individualised questions with scrambled numbers.
Written Examination in December#
The ordinary examination in December is a 4-hour written test in two parts (that will be carried out in direct continuation of one another).
The first part is a 2-hour test without electronic aids. The test is given on paper and must be answered and handed in on paper. Non-electronic material, such as your personal notes as well as textbooks and printed Lecture Notes, are allowed. All answers must be well-reasoned with references to relevant theorems in the course syllabus.
The second part is a 2-hour test with all by DTU permitted aids except for internet access. Here you may use e.g. SymPy for your computations. The test is a multiple choice test which is accessed electronically via DTU’s exam platform DE (Digital Exam). You must bring your own computer to log onto DTU’s exam wifi network to access this platform. The test consists of questions, each with a number of options among which only one option is correct. Only the correct option is to be marked, and no documentation is to be provided (no in-between calculation, analysis steps, nor explanations).
You will be given one (partial) grade for the written exam, in which the two parts weigh equally. Your bonus point from the semester will be added to your exam score before the (partial) grade is computed (see more about bonus points above).
The exam date is shown on the semester overview on the website. The DTU Exam Office, who conducts all written examinations at DTU, will inform you directly and individually of the exact time and place, typically a week in advance. Note that exam durations and times are individual, and if you are eligible for extended time for the test, then this will be clear from the information you receive from the DTU Exam Office.
Syllabus for the Written Examination#
The syllabus is described in the week programs from the lessons overview on the course website, where it is detailed exactly which parts of the Lecture Notes that are included in the syllabus.
An ideal, recommended approach to your exam preparation: Read the syllabus, solve all Long Day and Short Day exercises from the week programs throughout the semester, and go thoroughly through the feedback you have received on your homework assignments and possibly redo assignment questions that you struggled with.