This repository contains instructions and resources for practicals for the subjects CP1401, CP1801 and CP5639 at James Cook University.
Complete instructions are found in each prac folder.
Selected practical solutions are provided here, in the "solutions" branch.
These are to help you learn by evaluating your own work and seeing our suggested ways of solving the practical problems.
Important: Please use the solutions in a mature and honest way, as helpful learning tools... after you complete your own work, not as something to simply copy into your own prac work. OK?
Seriously, never copy the solutions as this will not help you learn as much as doing your own coding.
Practical numbers do not necessarily correspond to weeks. E.g. some subject offerings run in 10 weeks, some in 13 weeks. If you are enrolled in a six-week offering please go here for your pracs.
- Practical 01 - Problem Solving
- Practical 02 - Input, Processing and Output
- Practical 03 - Decision Structures
- Practical 04 - Repetition Structures
- Practical 05 - Coding Checkpoint 1
- Practical 06 - Functions 1
- Practical 07 - Functions 2
- Practical 08 - Lists
- Practical 09 - Coding Checkpoint 2 & Strings
- Practical 10 - Files
Assessment will be based on completing the tasks up to but not including the practice/extension section. You will be marked as follows:
- 4 = Excellent response to all questions (Always aim for this!)
- 3 = Good response to most or all questions, but some omissions or problems
- 2 = Reasonable response to some questions, but some significant omissions or problems
- 1 = Reasonable response to at least one question
- 0 = Minimal or no attempt
- LATE practicals will receive 1 mark for decent work, or 0 marks for poor work. Do not be late.
Note: This subject is all about learning best practices and patterns for solving problems using programming (in Python) and it is important that you learn these important foundations according to the teaching philosophy of the subject. For this reason (to help you learn properly!), you will not achieve full marks for working/complete practicals that are not done in the way that we prescribe. Here are some reasons that you might lose marks for your practicals (and assignments):
- Your work looks too similar to any provided solutions
- Your work includes concepts and code not taught in the subject
- You miss or skip part of a question (you must attempt all requirements for all questions)
- Your work does not follow the core concepts and patterns (e.g. using global variables, while True loops or similar techniques), even if they work!
You need to save your work from every prac. Keep every file/script you write.
We suggest you use a USB disk and cloud storage (like OneDrive) and organise it using folders, like CP1401/practicals/prac_01.
Give each file a logical name so you can find it again. Also, when you need to make changes to an existing script for a separate question, make a copy of the old question first so you have a record of everything.
Don't save your work to the JCU computers' local drives, but into your own storage area. You can use the local hard drive for temporary storage, then move your work onto your disk or cloud storage.
For important work like assignments, please make sure you have multiple backups.