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Comment by jackowayed | Hacker News Reader

Oh man, really? That's been my experience in high school, but I was really looking forward to college, where I heard that many professors make homework totally optional and the vast majority of one's grade comes from tests.

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I was really looking forward to college, where I heard that many professors make homework totally optional and the vast majority of one's grade comes from tests.

You would probably like majoring in math at the University of Minnesota then. The reason to do (self-chosen) homework between the tests is just to be ready for the tests. (Well, really the reason to learn anything should be to learn it, irrespective of grades, but you know what I mean.)

That's what they told me too.

It depends on the college. I would imagine that Stanford would be a bit better quality than my school.

From CS-106X, Programming Abstractions (intro course)

http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs106x/handouts/01-CS106X-Cour...

Your final grade will be computed as follows:

    Programs   25 % 
    Midterm    25 % 
    Final      50 %

From 51 H, Multivariable Calculus (freshman course)

http://www.stanford.edu/class/math51h/51h-info.html

Grading:

    Mid-term 1:  20% 
    Mid-term 2:  20% 
    Homework:    20% 
    Final Examination:  40%

In a Stanford CS project-heavy class, the projects are usually 50% or more of your final grade, and those are pretty tough to do without some understanding of the material. In a problem set class, the exams are typically 50% or more. For example, in CS103 (learning the basics like proofs, induction, graph theory, set theory, a little complexity, etc.) your grade is 45% psets and 55% exams; in 154 (in-depth complexity), it's 40/60. In 248 (3d graphics) it's 90% projects, 10% exam. So even if you get a TA who helps a little too much on psets, you won't get better than a B without understanding the material.

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