Homework Grading Outline

Homeworks are handed out every Wednesday and are due the following Wednesday. Each homework will consist of about three grading atoms (A grading atom is a part of each student writeup that will not be subdivided among graders; it will typically be one problem, possibly with subparts), and each grading atom will be assigned to a team of about three students.

Here is an outline of what happens during each grading cycle. The grading cycle for each homework starts the Wednesday the homework is handed out to class, and ends on the day the graded homeworks are handed back to the students (this will be the Monday after the Wednesday the homeworks are due).

• Wednesday: Teams are formed out of `volunteers' at the end of class (It may be advisable to volunteer at the beginning of quarter, when workloads are lighter). Each team gets assigned a grading atom.

• Wednesday-Sunday: The team members solve the assigned grading atom (only); ask each other or TA for advice if necessary. By default the graders get full credit for that week's homework.

• Monday: Team meets with TA and proposes model solution for team's grading atom. Default meeting time with TAs : after class.

• Wednesday: Team collects homeworks in class from other students.

• Wednesday-Friday: Team members make a first pass over homeworks, annotate homeworks extensively without assigning points and note down partial credit cases.

• Friday: Team meets to finish model solutions. Later, team meets with TA to present model solutions and to prepare uniform (consistent) partial credit policy. Default meeting time with TAs : Before discussion hours.

• Friday-Monday: Team members finish grading according to agreed-upon partial credit policy and fill in scoresheet.

• Monday: Team returns graded homeworks (sorted by lastname), the grader return sheet, submits model solutions and (via email) the scoresheet to TA, by noon. This is a hard deadline, as grades have to be reviewed and homeworks returned to students in class the same day.