Multiyear Students (Students from Previous Years)

This page gives advice for students who are only completing a partial part of MUDE this year (e.g., Q1 or Q2 only; or, just an exam, etc.). In particular, pay attention to the advice on how to pass the Exam or Portfolio assessment for MUDE for students that have not completed all assessments for the entire module. For an overview of changes to the technical content in previous years, see the Exams page.

If you are a student from a previous year, please inform MUDE staff of your situation and plan for completing the module by the start of each quarter. We will do our best to find ways to help you study the material and pass the exam and/or portfolio.

Getting Started in Q2

If you are starting your MUDE participation in Q2, there are several things to be aware of:

  1. During Q1 we learn to use a number of software tools (e.g., Git, VS Code, Conda environments, etc). You will need to allocate extra time to learn this if you start in Q2
  2. During Q1 we get familiar with a very regular weekly schedule, so it will seem like we start very fast in Q2 (e.g., PA, WS, GA, BC, Book, Files, wow!).
  3. Each year the modules setup and programming tools change a lot, so you will need to learn something new even if you think you learned it last year.
  4. Do not miss the opportunity to ask for help during question hours (see the overview on the schedule page).

Note that it can be difficult to get an overview of what happened in Q1, so we recommend you take some time and peruse the links in the section below.

  • Install the software described here, noting in particular:
    • you will need VS Code and Git
    • if you already have Anaconda you do not need install Miniconda (as long as it’s able to create an environment)
    • you will need to create a Conda environment (see WS 1.1 here)
    • Git is described in this chapter (make sure you install Git and set up SSH)
    • you will need to create a GitHub account to access assignments after week 1.3
    • some of the programming assignments will not be possible to complete now, but may contain useful information for you
  • Your standard working method in Q2 for assignments on GitHub should be: access assignment with link in README (example for PA 2.1 here), clone repository, complete assignment, make a commit and push to repo; note that if a green checkmark is visible in the actions tab, you have passed.

Exams

Students resitting the exam from previous years of MUDE are expected to write the the exam as-is; no alternative exam will be prepared. Review the Programming Assignments, Group Assignments and online textbook to identify the changes; you can also ask the instructors in office hours.

It is also recommended that you follow activities, such as the workshops (WS) on Wednesday’s, the Group Assignments (GA) on Friday’s, and the weekly Programming Assignments (PA) as these are meant to help learn topics covered for the exam.

Please talk to an instructor if you would like to find other students from previous years to work with. Unless you can commit to following the entire module as a “normal” student from this year, it is not possible to put you in a group with current students.

Portfolio

The Project Portfolio from the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years is now called the Assignment Portfolio, due to the transition to a weekly assignment that is turned in every Friday (now called the Group Assignment).

If you completed the projects from previous years and recieved passing grades for the projects in an entire quarter, you do not need to repeat that quarter. Once you complete the remaining quarter, a composite grade will be computed using the grading rules for each year where the assignments were completed.

If you only completed (or passed) part of the project assignments from a previous year, you must repeat the present year portfolio assignments for that quarter.

Students from previous years that must finish the portfolio assignments from this year must also complete the programming assignments. BuddyChecks are not required if you complete the assignments individually (but we recommend you work with a group, if possible!). Please consult MUDE staff to arrange this.

Students from 2022-2023

If you are collaborating with students from this year on the Group Assignment, we recommend you review the Programming Assignments that focus on Git and collaboration, PA 1.3 and PA 1.4. This is especially true if you are participating in Q2 Assignment Portfolio work, as the material from Q2 builds on the PA’s from Q1.