Math 19
Winter 2024

Home Course Schedule Homework Exams and Resources Office Hours Precalculus FAQ

Logistics for handing in homework

The weekly homework submissions will be handled electronically via the Gradescope platform. Students registered for the course at the end of the first weekend should receive an email to sign up for Gradescope. Otherwise, please contact your instructor starting the morning of January 15.

Gradescope accepts only electronic submissions, so you will need to scan your homework before uploading it. Make sure to allot plenty of time to follow the submission instructions below before each deadline.

Assignments will be posted no later than a week before they are due. Any change to a posted assignment will be announced in class and via Canvas notification email.

The due date is always Wednesday morning at 9AM, and no late homework will be accepted under any circumstances. (This is as much a courtesy to the grader as an incentive to stay current with the course and not fall behind.) To accommodate situations such as a serious illness or anything else that may arise (even if it is an obstruction known in advance due to your schedule), your homework score will be multiplied by 1.25 (not to exceed 100%) at the end of the quarter; please do not rely on this scaling factor early in the term.

Readability policy (untagged problems, oversize PDFs): Again out of respect for the graders' limited time to examine your submissions, untagged homework problems on Gradescope will not be graded by the graders; nor will problems on submissions consisting of an oversized single-page PDF. Once you submit a regrade request due to a problem tagged incorrectly or not found on a single-page submission, there will be a 50% penalty for that problem. This policy is in effect starting with Homework #2.

For the written assignments

Be sure to show all your work (helps with partial credit and lets us comment on your process).

Remember: calculators are not allowed for the exams and homework is one way to help prepare yourself for the tests. Therefore, you should avoid using a calculator when completing your homework. However, there are some homework problems that we feel are important for building conceptual understanding and yet need a calculator. Such problems are indicated below with a superscript "T".

Solution sets are posted shortly after submission deadlines so that students can promptly see where they had misconceptions and alternative approaches. Release of such solutions also supports exam preparation. Extensions of additional time on homework assignments beyond the release of solution sets are not granted because this would fundamentally alter the course and its cumulative nature.

It is always recommended that students submit partially-completed assignments even if they are not able to finish the full assignment by the deadline.

Homework regrades

Regrade requests need to be submitted through Gradescope by 9AM 7 days after it is due. After the regrade submission period ends, your requested solutions will be re-evaluated and the score for these solutions adjusted (up, down, or the score will stay the same). Students must include sufficient justification for regrading a problem or else the request will be denied

All homework assignments and solutions will be posted weekly on Canvas.

Problem Set # Due Date Written Assignment
(To be written up, scanned, and submitted)
1 Wed, Jan 17 Problems for HW 1
2 Wed, Jan 24 Problems for HW 2
3 Wed, Jan 31 Problems for HW 3
4 Wed, Feb 7 Problems for HW 4
5 Wed, Feb 14 Problems for HW 5
6 Wed, Feb 21 Problems for HW 6
7 Wed, Feb 28 Problems for HW 7
8 Wed, Mar 6 Problems for HW 8
9 Wed, Mar 13 Problems for HW 9

Gradescope overview

Gradescope is an online platform for grading exams and homework. For each problem, you will be able to see clearly which rubric items your solution satisfied and any additional comments the grader has for you.

Two important notes:

  • Homework assignments will still be graded by members of the Math 19 instructional team. You are not being graded by an electronic system.
  • Exams would be given on paper and the instructional team would upload them to Gradescope. However, students are still responsible for scanning and uploading their homework each week.

How do I get an account?

Students registered for the course at the end of the first weekend should receive an email to sign up for Gradescope. Otherwise, please contact Dr. Taylor starting the morning of January 15.

How do I actually upload my homework?

For each homework assignment, you must

  • Produce a legible PDF of your complete solutions to each problem. Make sure your problems are clearly labeled!
  • Upload the PDF to Gradescope by the deadline (9am on Wednesday mornings)
  • Select the page(s) that contain the solution to each of the assigned problems. Note: Failure to do this finalizing step will mean that some or all of your problems will not be graded! Once you submit a regrade request due to a problem tagged incorrectly, there will be a 50% penalty for that problem. This policy is in effect starting with Homework #2.

An example of the PDF submission process is depicted in this video.

Note: It is also possible to choose to take a picture of each question and upload each question individually, though this is less recommended.

How do I produce a PDF of my homework?

This does not mean you have to do your homework on a computer. It just means you have to scan your handwritten work and create a PDF. The first thing to be aware of is that the scan will come out much better if you write in a darker pencil or pen.

To actually scan your paper homework using a mobile device, Gradescope now recommends using its free mobile app, which performs the photo-scanning, conversion to a single PDF, and submission, for any Gradescope assignment. At Gradescope's page explaining the Gradescope Mobile App, you will find a video demonstrating the process.

Alternatively, there are a number of mobile/tablet apps for various platforms previously recommended by Gradescope that will allow you to turn photos into multi-page PDFs. Note: GeniusScan is also available for iPhone and some may find it preferrable to Scannable. As a final alternative, there are traditional scanners in many (theoretically all) computer clusters in campus residences and many (theoretically all) campus libraries. Contact the Residential Computing help desk for details.

MOST IMPORTANT POINT: Make sure to preview your scan before you upload it to Gradescope! You want to make sure that every bit of work is visible and readable so that the graders can provide accurate feedback on your solutions.

What if I notice an error in a solution or forgot a page of my homework when I submitted it?

If the deadline has not passed, you can resubmit your homework. Simply go to Gradescope and click on the relevant assignment to view your submission. In the bottom right hand corner of your browser, you should see a "resubmit" button. This will allow you to update your submission to correct the error you noticed. Only your final submission will be graded.

Important note: Choosing to resubmit your assignment will completely erase your current submission, meaning you will have to reupload your entire solution again. Gradescope does not currently allow you to just update a single question.

How can I verify that my homework has been received?

You should expect to receive an email from Gradescope confirming your submission. The other way to confirm your submission is to go back into your dashboard and view that this assignment has a submission. (You'll be able to click on the assignment to view your pages.) If instead there is no submission, your status will be "No Submission."

How do I see how I did on the homework assignment?

Once the submission deadline has past, your homework will be graded. This usually takes a little under a week. Therefore, the following Tuesday, you will receive an email saying that your graded work is available for viewing. Your score as well as grader feedback on your homework will be available in Gradescope. For information about how to find and interpret the feedback, we've made an information sheet on looking over your graded assignment.

What if I think one of my problems was graded incorrectly?

If there is a problem where you believe you deserve more credit based on the visible work in your original submission and the grader's rubric, use Gradescope's "request regrade" feature for the appropriate problem ASAP (no later than one week after the original due date, i.e. 9am Wednesday the week after homework is due). The "Request Regrade" button appears on the bottom bar of your browser window after you have clicked to view the particular graded problem and its rubric.

Please note that if a problem was missing from your submission (whether you accidentally skipped it, did the incorrect problem, or forgot to upload the relevant scan), you will not receive any credit for that problem.

Winter 2024 -- Department of Mathematics, Stanford University

Problems with this page? Contact Christine Taylor so we can fix the problem.