So what I ended up doing was adding a couple of lines in a file that was not supposed to be modified, which caused my code to not compile (that file was replaced during grading). This was earlier on a couple of weeks ago when I started the homework assignment. As a result, I basically lost all the points that I could’ve gotten if it weren’t for that stupid mistake.
I’m at a loss for words as to what to do here. The professor says we can’t make code changes but this would be literally just commenting out functions. I’m so mad at myself that this happened in the first place, and don’t even know what to do. I can’t even work on my homework that’s due next week and I’m kicking myself just because of this whole thing.
Edit: Is it possible to remove this? My previous post, identical to this was stuck on loading so I submitted again as I wasn’t sure it had gone through.
Either very nicely ask the professor if they can reevaluate your score since you did do the assignment (and understand that they are not required to change the grade, given that it sounds like you violated a stated policy?), or swallow the zero this one time. You’ll never make that mistake again and one assignment probably won’t sink you.
I have another near zero though in this class, so I was hoping to do really good on this one, and I was so confident given that I practically finished it a day early. I really feel I don’t deserve this near zero because it was because of one tiny bug that I was practically oblivious to, since all the test cases they provided ran without any indication of an error.
If you knew it wasn’t supposed to be modified, the prof may not think you have much of a case. It’s not really the professor’s fault that you did badly on another assignment or that you decided not to follow the rules and it caused a bug you didn’t notice.
But you can always try. Let us know how it turns out – hopefully well.
Do TA’s grade your work? Can you submit a request for a re-grade? In one of my CS classes, it was really dependent on the TA that was grading your assignment. One of them was extremely harsh and gave me like 8/100 because I made a similar mistake. On another assignment, I somehow made the same mistake (again) and my code wouldn’t compile because I named something differently in the header file. This time, however, this particular TA asked me to swing by during office hours and either explain what I was trying to accomplish or make slight modifications while he watched over me. It literally took me 3 seconds to change a single letter and the program ran fine. He wanted to give me 40/100, but after the change I made, it went up to 93/100. I really don’t understand why they aren’t able to notice such a tiny mistake, but I guess graders are paid to just run an automated script and analyze the results.
TLDR; if there’s a re-grade policy, you might have a shot. Otherwise, if you were cursed with a strict CS professor, you just have to learn from this mistake.
I’m sorry, but at my university, the policy is if it doesn’t compile, you don’t credit. I am a grader for CS courses at my university and if I gave someone a zero for this, the professor(s) would not have me regrade it, no matter how hard the person complained. It doesn’t matter how small a mistake it was. This is very common in CS programs- it has nothing to do with a professor being strict or not. Always make sure your code compiles and runs correctly before submitting it. A runtime error is much more forgivable because that means you either couldn’t figure out how to correct it, didn’t have it show up in your run, or didn’t notice it. A compiler error means you didn’t try to run your code, which means you didn’t check your code, which is a very bad habit. Take it as a lesson learned and don’t make the same mistake again.
@guineagirl96 I tried to run my code, and it worked perfectly on my machine. The only problem was a bug in my code that linked to a file that was replaced (that I didn’t realize it was too late). Literally I’d be getting a 25/32 if I had caught it.
@RacquetSmasher76 The second time I made the mistake was at the end of the semester, so the deadline had passed to ask for a re-grade on the 8/100 assignment. I had to just suck it up. I never knew how much CS graders actually hate grading, lol. A lot of them are just as lazy as the students. Even with scripts to make their lives easier, the graders for my CS courses were always behind in grading. When the TA re-graded the assignment in front of me, he was literally done in less than 5 minutes. Makes me think they don’t want to actually do the work they’re hired for. One of them even begged the students not to ask for a re-grade. Maybe that course just left me bitter. I had way more positive experiences in my other CS courses.
Graders are students too. They have school work and other responsibilities too. Grading one assignment may take less than 5 minutes but grading 60 does not.
And you didn’t follow directions. You changed a class that you weren’t supposed to change. The blame is entirely on you.
OK, so I went to my professor, and he kind of sympathized with me after I pointed out the very minor bug. He did say though that he’s trying to keep his niceness from getting out of hand so he’s going to evaluate all the ones that didn’t compile case by case and that I should email him to remind him. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I’m sorry, but this is just insulting and generally untrue. As @snowfairy137 said, graders have other things to do besides grade. Everything they said is spot on! A set of 18 assignments for the classes I grade can take me up to 3 hours to grade, but usually takes about an hour. I’m a double major, with a double minor, heavily involved in the performing arts, with honor society obligations (especially for the four I serve on exec for), and a full plate of rigorous courses. The professors I grade for have always told me my academics and health come first.
Graders are behind often because, even with scripts, grading assignments is not always fast, and we have lives too. It’s better to take longer grading things and do it right, than have things be returned quickly and graded sloppily (answers that are wrong marked as correct and vice versa, with the former actually being the more egregious error). When I’m behind, it may be because I was just sick and have classwork to catch up on, or maybe I have 3 tests that week, or had a performance and extra rehearsals. There’s been semesters where I’ve graded multiple classes, and that created delays when assignments for both classes came in at similar times. You do not want me grading your assignment at 3 am just to stay “on time”. That doesn’t help anyone.
So, over two weeks later, my professor decided to regrade my assignment. It went from a 3/32 to a 25/32. Also found out that I scored higher than the average on the midterm that we had this week. I’m so happy RN!!!
I used to be a CS TA back in the day. For me the worst thing about grading, especially in intro classes, was the amount of “shared” work that would be turned in. Here’s a ten line program illustrating a FOR loop, and here’s another, and here’s the first one again, and here’s the second one again. It’s really hard to hide stolen code. I stapled a handful of them together one day early in the semester, wrote 6/10 on the top with the note “Let me know how you want to divide the 6 points.”