Grading and policies
Table of contents
Course grading scheme
The course grading scheme is designed to encourage students to keep up with the course content as it happens, to learn through consistent practice and studying, to use AI to deepen their understanding and augment their skills, and to join lectures in person when possible.
- Homework (20%): weekly (or so) homework assignments
- Quiz (30%): weekly (or so) quizzes
- Project (30%): one final data analysis project
- Exam (20%): final exam
Students who are unable to attend a given quiz may choose to put the weight of that quiz onto the final exam. So, for example, a student who is unable to attend half the quizzes would have the weight of the final exam increased to 35%. Conversely, students who cannot attend the final exam may choose to put the weight of the final exam onto the quizzes. So, for example, the weight of the quiz component of your final grade would increase to 50%.
More details about each assignment follow.
OAE Deadlines. If you plan to use your OAE approved exam accommodations for a specific assessment, you must provide your accommodation letter and inform the instructor (using this webform) by:
- 10 calendar days prior to a midterm or quiz date.
- No later than May 25th, 2026, at 5:00 pm for the final exam You only need to submit your letter once per quarter. For urgent OAE-related accommodation needs that arise after the deadline, please consult your OAE adviser. If you are not yet registered with OAE, contact the office directly at oae-contactus@stanford.edu.
Homework
Grading. Homework will be graded on a completion basis: you will receive a full score if you indicate that you tried to understand and respond to the question. In addition, you will be asked to come to TA office hours at least twice per quarter and to justify your answers from some previous homework assignments.
Slip days. We recognize that students are balancing many priorities, and so we make accommodations to allow for late homework. Students have seven slip days that may be used through the quarter with no grade penalty. At most three slip days may be used for a single assignment. For example, you could submit two homeworks two days late and a third three days late; or your friend could submit seven homeworks one day late each. To calculate slip days, we round up: a homework submitted 24 hours and one minute after it is due will use two slip days. Homework submitted after all your slip days are used will receive a score of 0.
Drops. Your lowest homework grade will be dropped.
Weights. Although some assignments are more difficult than others, we weight all assignments equally when computing your overall homework score.
Collaboration. The goal of the homework is to help you practice the skills that you’ll use later in this class and - we hope! - later in life. Homework carries weight for your grade to encourage you to spend time on it and think deeply about it. Our collaboration policy is geared to make sure you can get the help you need, and so that by the time you turn in your work you understand what it’s about, how it works, and why it’s important.
Students are allowed - and even encouraged - to collaborate with each other and with AI on homework. However, each student must submit their own homework. We ask that you
- Give credit to the people who have helped you: please write on your homework the names of the people you worked with.
- Give credit to the other resources that have helped you: please write on your homework the textbooks, notes, web pages, or AI models you found useful, with details on how you used each.
- Write up your homework by yourself. ~That is, all of the text that you submit should be typed or hand-written by you. No copy-pasting. Tab-completing code via GitHub Copilot, CodeSquire or equivalent is allowed.~
Sharing solutions. Under no circumstance should you seek out or look at solutions to assignments given in previous years, or share or post solutions (yours or ours) to a public website.
Quizzes
This class will have about 8 quizzes (approximately weekly), which will ask some simple questions on course material. Quizzes will be cumulative.
Quizzes will take place in class on Wednesdays. These quizzes will be closed book and internet. You may bring a single sheet of handwritten notes. (It’s fine to write on both sides.) Each quiz will generally last 10 minutes, but some may be longer.
Regrades. You can ask for your quiz to be regraded up until two days after grades have been assigned. Regrades may increase or decrease your grade.
Drops. In computing your final quiz grade, we will drop your lowest quiz score.
Accommodations. Quizzes are an entirely optional part of the course. If you are not able to take the quizzes in class in the time allocated, you may choose the grading option that places no weight on the quizzes. Of course, you’re welcome to take the quizzes and learn from them even if you don’t plan to use them for your course grade!
Exams
This class will have a final exam during the assigned exam period scheduled by the University registrar. The exam will be cumulative, closed book and internet. You may bring a single sheet of handwritten notes. The final exam will be 1.5 hours long.
Accommodations. If you have a letter from the Office of Accessible Education that grants extra time or modified test-taking conditions, send your letter to the course staff and we will accommodate your needs on the final exam. If you are not able to take the final exam in person at the designated time, for example due to an internship that starts before exam week, you may choose the grading option that places no weight on the exam.
Academic integrity. This course is participating in the proctoring pilot overseen by the Academic Integrity Working Group (AIWG). The purpose of this pilot is to determine the efficacy of proctoring and develop effective practices for proctoring in-person exams at Stanford. To find more details on the pilot or the working group, please visit the AIWG’s webpage.
Exceptions
Beyond the slip days and drops outlined above, extensions on assignments will be granted only with an academic accommodation letter from the Office of Accessible Education (generally for medical reasons). or in other such exceptional circumstances. Requests due to job interviews, other classes and assignments, and poor planning will not be considered. We suggest you save your slip days to insure against catastrophe.
Attendance
Class participation is important for staying engaged and in-sync with the course material. Attending in person is encouraged through our participation policy:
- In-class participation will be recorded using in-class polls on the Poll Everywhere website. You must log in using your SUNet credentials. Go to Pollev.stanford.edu and log in with your SUNet credentials to access your free account. Or enter your SUNet email address at Polleverywhere.com and click Log in with Stanford to enter through the SUNet portal.
- If you are not able to make it to class (e.g., if you are sick), you can instead watch the lecture recording, which will be posted after the lecture on Canvas, and submit the makeup participation form before the start of the next class.
- We drop your lower two participation scores; so, you can get a perfect participation score even if you miss class twice without submitting the makeup participation form.
DO NOT register for this course if you have a recurring conflict with the lecture block. Lectures are recorded so that students who are sick or otherwise unable to come to class can receive full credit without having to prove their disability. However, we still believe that students learn best in class, and so if attendance is too low, we may drop the remote participation option at any time.
Office hours are not recorded.
Discussion section will consist of one-on-one help with hands-on exercises that prepare you for the homework assignments. Discussion section attendance is not mandatory. Be sure to bring your laptop.