Mathematics for Computer Science

Making Up Waived & Excused Requirements

Every student is allowed to have one low pset score dropped if they submit makeup work described below. The three dropped class participation grades need not be made up. Additional work or classes that gets excused for legitimate reasons such as illness, unavoidable professional conflicts or out of town varsity competitions, must also be made up.

Note that pset solutions are posted shortly after they are due, and extensions for late submissions are not allowed once solutions have been posted.

Makeup Procedures

The same makeup procedure (described below) applies for psets and the fourth and later class participation scores.

Students should arrange makeups with their team coaches. Makeups for excused classes beyond three and for PSets are expected within about a week after scores are released. Extensions beyond a week can be approved by team coaches, but coaches have been instructed not to allow open-ended makeup submission.

Writeups that do not reflect reasonable attention to the material being made up will be returned to students for further work. When satisfactory makeup work has been completed, coaches will notify the Gradesmaster to drop the low grade.

  • Participation Makeup.

    This should consist of a written commentary (see below) on the day's class material that reflects an engagement comparable to that required to prepare for, and participate in, class. A commentary of one or two pages reflecting 2 to 2.5 hours work would be typical.
  • PSet Makeup.

    A commentary of two or three pages reflecting 2.5 to 3.5 hours work would be typical for a missed pset. Students may also do makeup for a submitted pset whose grade is the one they want dropped; in this case they need only make up the parts that lost points.

Makeup Commentary Guidelines

The student should should review the problems and solutions. It is generally not useful for a student simply to write up their own attempt at solutions. Instead, they should indicate, for example, if they:
  • believe they would have solved the problem on their own, outlining their approach and including a commentary on how it compares to the given solution,
  • learned something they didn't quite know (indicate what),
  • remain uncertain about the solution, indicating the uncertainty as specifically as they can,
  • think the problem highlighted an important concept---or, to the contrary, hinged on just a technicality, briefly explaining why they think so,
  • think the problem was too hard/long/easy for its place on a class problem/pset/exam, briefly explaining why they think so,
  • can suggest an improved version of the problem or soln, OR
  • can suggest an alternative version for future use.

Lateness Policy

If a student comes to class 15 to 45 minutes late (without prior warning and excuse), they can expect a participation grade of at most 1. Grade will be 0 for more than 45 min lateness.

Repeated lateness of any kind is not consistent with a team-study based class like 6.042. A preceding class being "far away" or running overtime are not acceptable excuses. In these circumstances, students should notify the instructor of the preceding class at the start of that class that they have to leave precisely on time (which by Institute rules, is 5 min before the hour or half-hour) in order to get to 6.042. They can explain to that instructor that 6.042 has required attendance and penalties for lateness.

Students should consult with their coach or an instructor to have a lateness excused.


Creative Commons License
MIT 6.042 class material by Albert R Meyer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License .
For website issues, contact the

This document last modified Thursday, 08-Feb-2018 21:02:20 EST