Engaging with the subject from the beginning is critical to learning, in this course as in any other. The labs in particular are crucial to learning. In each lab, there are some required tasks, and tutors will check off in the lab whether you have attempted and/or succeeded at these, before or during the lab. The class engagement mark is calculated as a function of all your lab checks at the end of the semester. It is critical that you ensure that a tutor gets to check off your class engagement mark before the end of each lab, regardless of how far you got in the lab exercises.
Note that the class engagement mark is not simply proportional to the number of labs you have successfully solved. If you make a good attempt at each lab’s tasks, you can get the full engagemen mark even if you have not solved all of them. Likewise, you can miss a lab or two if you do well in the others, and still get the full mark.