The primary methods for engaging with the course material are through lectures, discussion sections, homework, and the notes. All are important, and exams will test a mix of the material from these sources.
Live lecture will take place 12:30pm - 2:00pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at Dwinelle 155. Lectures will be recorded and linked on Piazza/Website once lecture is over. It is highly recommended that you watch the lecture the day it is released.
Release Schedule: Discussion worksheets are published at the beginning of the week. The solutions are published after all sections of the day are completed.
We will be assigning sections this semester. The form to sign up will be on Piazza and attendance will be taken as part of your grade through a completely objective criteria. You will need to attend at least 13 points to receive full credit for discussion attendance. You are welcome to attend other discussion sections, but your attendance will only be counted for the section you are assigned to. The discussion sections are designed not to cover new material but to consolidate the material covered in lectures and in the notes. All sections are equivalent: they all cover the same material.
Distinguished Alum Lili says, “When I took the course, I tried my best to attend every discussion and ask questions whenever I was confused!”
There is no textbook for this class. Instead, there is a set of comprehensive lecture notes posted on the front page for each lecture. Make sure you revisit the notes after every lecture. Each note may be covered in one or more lectures.
Distinguished Alum Megan says, “When I took the course, I studied the notes until I was able to comfortably reproduce all of the proofs.
Office Hours will be both in-person and online. The OH queue will be hosted at oh.eecs70.org. OHs will be hybrid or remote, please see the calendar for details.
See the Calendar tab for OH time and location. You will submit a ticket online at oh.eecs70.org to join the OH queue. In the ticket please specify the room you are currently in. Once it is your turn a course staff member will call your name to help you with your ticket.
At the times listed on the calendar, someone on course staff will be monitoring the online queue. Again, you will submit a ticket online at oh.eecs70.org to join the OH queue with your location specified as online. A course staff member will provide a video call link for you to join when it’s your turn. In-person course staff will prioritize helping in-person tickets on the queue.
We encourage participation. Participation includes attending lectures live, contributing in discussion, asking and answering questions on Piazza, using Party OH, and more. The more you engage with the class, the more fun it is and the better you do.
We will use Piazza as the ‘one-stop shop’ throughout the semester: for a Q&A forum and official announcements. Enrollment in Piazza is mandatory. If you have questions about anything related to the course, please post them on Piazza rather than emailing the professors or TAs. Please do not post anything resembling a solution to a homework problem before it’s due. See the Piazza Etiquette section for more on using Piazza. To join the class on Piazza, click this.
All homework and vitamins will be submitted through Gradescope. All homework, vitamin, and exam grades will be returned through Gradescope. If you have not been enrolled in our Gradescope, please fill out this form.
Please use Piazza for all technical questions. If you have a more specific administrative question or any feedback, please send an email to the course administrative account cs70-staff@berkeley.edu. Emails sent to this account are only seen by the instructors and head TAs.
Release Schedule: Homework for the coming week is released on Saturday. Homework is due on Gradescope the following Thursday at 11:59 pm. (grace period until Friday 11:59pm, no question asked); the solutions for that homework will be released on Saturday along with the new Homework.
There will be weekly required homeworks designed to consolidate your understanding of the course material. We strongly recommend starting these early since there will be no office hours support on weekends. Your lowest two homework scores will be dropped, but these drops should be reserved for emergencies. No additional allowances will be made for late or missed homeworks: please do not contact us about missed homeworks or late submissions. Homework scores may be curved.
Due to budget constraints, we didn’t receive the same reader budget as we have in the past; so, we may sample homework problems to grade each week.
We recommend that you start the homeworks as early as possible so you get more time to think about the problems and get help if you end up getting stuck. Additionally, Richard also recommends that you carefully review the homework solutions after they are released and understand them to the point of being able to replicate them without needing to reference them. Having a comprehensive understanding of topics on the homework will go a long way in giving you the intuition you need to succeed!
Release Schedule: The vitamin for the current week is released on Gradescope on Saturday. The vitamin is due on Gradescope the following Thursday at 11:59 pm (grace period until Friday 11:59 pm, no question asked); the solutions for that vitamin will be released on Sunday.
There will be weekly required vitamins designed to consolidate your understanding of the course material. If you read the notes in advance and attend the lectures, they should be quick to complete. As a result, there will be no Piazza support for vitamins. Your lowest two vitamin scores will be dropped, but this drop should be reserved for emergencies. No additional allowances will be made for late or missed vitamins: please do not contact us about missed vitamins or late submissions.
Vitamins are due at the same time as Home work . You need to submit your answers directly on Gradescope. If you have questions on how to do this, please make a private post on Piazza.
We will have one midterm and a final and both will be conducted in-person. If you are unable to attend the exam in-person, please check Piazza for details on how to proceed.
Unfortunately, due to large enrollment, we are unable to accommodate final exam conflicts with other classes; we strongly discourage enrollment in another class with conflicting lectures and/or final exam; if you choose to enroll in such a class you will have to make arrangements for an alternate final with the other class.
You must attend all exams to pass the class. We will consider granting an incomplete given extenuating circumstances that are communicated to course staff. Simply not attending the final exam does not ensure an automatic failure or the granting of an incomplete.
We are grading according to department guidelines on grades. The score upon which the grade will be assigned will be computed as follows:
Since there will only be one midterm, we have a partial clobber policy on the midterm or the final, your other score can be partially clobbered if you happen to do poorly. More details will be released in the coming weeks.
UC Berkeley is committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of its diverse student body including students with disabilities. If you anticipate or experience any barriers to learning in this course, please feel welcome to send your concerns to cs70-staff@berkeley.edu.
If you have a disability, or think you may have a disability, you can work with the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) to request an official accommodation. The Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) is the campus office responsible for authorizing disability-related academic accommodations, in cooperation with the students themselves and their instructors. You can find more information about DSP, including contact information and the application process here: dsp.berkeley.edu.
Students who need academic accommodations or have questions about their accommodations should contact DSP, located at 260 César Chávez Student Center. Students may call 642-0518 (voice), 642-6376 (TTY), or e-mail dsp@berkelely.edu.
We take academic misconduct very seriously. Using any kind of homework or exam solutions (for example, from previous semesters) on a currently active assignment is strictly prohibited and is academic misconduct. Consequences of academic misconduct include negative points for the corresponding assignment, a failing grade in the class, and/or a referral to the Office of Student Conduct.
You are welcome to work on homework problems in study groups of two to five people; however, you must always write up the solutions on your own. Similarly, you may use books or online resources to help solve homework problems, but you must always credit all such sources in your writeup and you must never copy material verbatim.
We believe that most students can distinguish between helping other students and cheating. You may discuss approaches but your solution must be written by you and you only. You should acknowledge everyone whom you have worked with or who has given you any significant ideas about the homework.
Your attention is drawn to the Department’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty. In particular, you should be aware that copying or sharing solutions, in whole or in part, from other students in the class (or any other source without acknowledgment) constitutes cheating. Any student found to be cheating risks automatically failing the class and being referred to the Office of Student Conduct._
We are excited to teach you this semester! For tips and advice on how to do well in this course, please see our survival tips page.
Always feel free to contact us via email or visit us during office hours if you feel unsure about your progress in the course, or would just like to reach out. We are here to support you and help you succeed!