COMP1120: Course Entry and Enrolment Procedures

Motivations of the Course

The motivation of COMP1120 is to provide students who have sufficient prior programming experience to find COMP1100 easy with a more challenging and faster-track introduction to the Introductory Programming and Software Engineering syllabus, which forms the foundation of the BSEng and BIT degrees.

Thus, COMP1120 serves to acknowledge that a significant number of our entering first year students already have significant programming skills and experience, and permits 6units more room in their degree programs to pursue other courses.

Who is Eligible for COMP1120?

Those that are granted (initial) selection, and who subsequently demonstrate they are sufficiently strong in programming and related skills in the first 5 weeks of the semester, will be permitted to change their COMP1100 enrolment into COMP1120. Note that there is no direct way of enrolling in COMP1120.

Selection and Enrolment Procedure

Week 0 to mid Week 1: Prepare your COMP1120 application.
There will be an application form available from this page by end of week 0. It will ask you to detail your prior programming experience, including a summary of computing skills accrued (including programming languages), details on any relevant courses attended, descriptions of any software projects you have been involved with, and descriptions of any non-trivial programs that you have written (ie. when written, what languages used, how large in terms of code size and hours of effort, what parts of the codes were written soley by yourself). You will be expected to include a hardcopy sample of at least one such piece of software.

Download the application form: in postscript, PDF.

Note: if you are having trouble printing the application form and description of SALTY documents, there are a number of hardcopies outside CSIT N318. See the Course Co-ordinator if these run out.

early-mid Week 1: Try the sample COMP1120 Entry Quiz.
From this page, we will put up a sample Entry Quiz for self-test purposes, and indicate the standard expected for entry. If you find you do not meet this standard, you should opt out at this stage. These Quizes will use a simplified procedural language called SALTY for program examples.

Download the description of SALTY: in postscript or PDF.

Friday Week 1: Attend the introductory COMP1120 lecture.
Bring and hand in your application for COMP1120. Bring also the description of SALTY. Sit the Entry Quiz during the second half of the lecture.

Tuesday week 2, 1:30 pm (New! 07/03/03) There will be a second (and final) chance to hand in an application form and sit an Entry Quiz. This is for people who were put off applying in week 1, due to possible misunderstandings on the required level of experience. Please arrive promptly at CSIT N329 (The Aquarium) at 1:30pm.

early Week 2: Notification of initial selection.
Students will be informed by email of the outcome of their application, based on that and their Entry Quiz results. Those selected will be informed which COMP1120 tute/lab group they have been assigned to, and attend that group and the COMP1120 lectures from then on.

Week 6: Notification of permission to enrol.
Students will be informed by email on whether a formal enrolment in COMP1120 will be granted to them. This will be based on whether satisfactory standards were achieved in the first programming assignment (due week 5) and the Mid-semester Exam (end of week 5).

Semester 2: Varying Semester 2 enrolments.
Upon passing COMP1120, you will need to disenrol in COMP1110, and choose a new course in its place for Semester 2.

FAQs: COMP1120 vs COMP1100/COMP1110

• What are the advantages of doing COMP1120?
  See the Motivations section above.
• If I do COMP1120, will I be able to complete by degree earlier? Will I have to do fewer courses to complete my degree?
  No and no.
• I failed COMP1100 or COMP1110 last year. Am I eligible for COMP1120?
  No. COMP1120 is intended for those who potentially will find COMP1100 and COMP1110 easy. By failing one of those courses, it will be taken that you have proved otherwise.
• What level of programming experience is expected for initial selection into COMP1120?
  If you are by now as experienced with any procedural or OO language (eg. C or Java) as a passing student in COMP1100 will be with Eiffel by semester 2, then you have an appropriate level of experience.
  More explicitly, you would meet this level if you have successfully written programs of somewhat more than say 100 lines of commented code, and are made of several procedures each with a reasonably interesting algorithmic structure. Click here for such a program, in this case written in Modula-2.
• How will COMP1120 be organized?
  The Lectures page now also outlines its structure and overall schedule.
• I am interested in COMP1120. What do I do?
  Follow the procedure above.
• I have looked at the application form. I am still unsure of whether I meet the standard expected (for example, I do not have a huge amount to write on my prior programming experience). Should I continue with my application?
  Yes. Its very hard for us to communicate to you under these conditions exactly what standard we are expecting. If you are interested in COMP1120, it is better to apply and let us decide (that's our job after all!), than make the decision yourself by giving up. Note that the applicatiom form asks for any kind of evidence that might be helpful to us deciding your level of experience. It is not essential that that you be able to make a strong case in everything being asked for.
• I have looked at the application form, and am having trouble producing a suitable sample of programming work. What should I do?
  If the work is not accessible for some reason, you should at least try to describe it in some detail, and maybe even reconstruct some of the more interesting sections of the code. Or your could spend an evening or so writing a 100-200 line program, like this second example, and submit that.
• What factors will be used to determine initial selection into COMP1120?
  Programming experience and skills are the main factors. A quota may need to be imposed, in which case students enrolled in the BSEng and BIT (Software Development) degrees will get precedence. Timetable availability for a COMP1120 tute/lab group may also be a consideration.
• What happens if, after gaining initial selection into COMP1120, I find (in week 6) that I am not allowed to transfer to COMP1120?
  Your formal enrolment in COMP1100 will simply continue. You will only have to switch back to a COMP1110 tute/laboratory group and resume attending the COMP1100 lectures. Based on your performance on the first COMP1120 assignment, you will gain corresponding credit for any COMP1100 assignments that you have missed in the meantime.
• In terms of my workload, how would COMP1120 compare with either COMP1100 or COMP1110?
  Even though they are all 6unit courses, for a given student, COMP1120 is likely to have a somewhat (20-30%) higher workload in terms of hours spent than either COMP1100 or COMP1110.
  However, students that are appropriate for COMP1120 should find their workload in COMP1100 or COMP1110 to be much less than for the average student. In that sense, their workload for COMP1120 should be reasonable.
• Am I likely to get a higher mark in COMP1120, than in either COMP1100 or COMP1110?
  No, but provided you pass, the mark should be about the same.
• What happens if enrol in COMP1120 and fail?
  In the worst case, you may have to enrol in COMP1100 (and COMP1110) in the following year. In some circumstances, a student may have the COMP1100 prerequisite to COMP1110 waived, which would permit them to enrol in COMP1110 this year.