Extensions Policy
Deadline Philosophy
We want your grades to reflect what you learned and not when you learned it. At the same time, giving too much flexibility leads to students falling behind.
We want missing deadlines to have some sting, but want you to be able to earn a full score if you’ve mastered our learning objectives, even if you were a bit late.
HW and Mini-Project Lateness Penalties
For every twelve hours late (rounded up), you will lose 5% of your grade on homeworks and mini-projects. However, the total number of points you need to max out each category is less than the maximum possible score. The totals are listed in the table below:
| Assignment Type | Points | Points Lost per Half Day Late | Number of Assignments | Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HWs | 20 | 1 | 10 | 140 |
| Mini-projects | 90 | 4.5 | 4 | 300 |
Design Project Lateness Penalties
There are eight design project deadlines: 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 5A, 5B, and 5C. As with homeworks and mini-projects, you will lose 5% per 12 hours late. These project deadlines are worth the point totals below:
| Deadline | Points | Points Lost per Half Day Late |
|---|---|---|
| 4A | 120 | 5 |
| 4B | 25 | 1.25 |
| 4C | 160 | 8 |
| 4D | 160 | 8 |
| Pre-5 Form | 10 | No late submissions |
| 5A | 50 | 2.5 |
| 5B | 50 | 2.5 |
| 5C | 300 | No late submissions |
| Post-5 Form | 10 | No late submissions |
Your total design project score is out of 800. Note that the points above add up to 885, so you may lose up to 85 total points to lateness or incorrectness and still earn a full score.
Note: If you’re on the no-discussion track, your design project score will be multiplied by 875/800.
How to Request Extensions
For students with DSP accomodations, it is possible to request extensions on assignments. To do so:
- Navigate to the extensions page on Beacon.
- Follow the instructions listed on the page.
- We’ll respond to your request in 1–2 business days.
Extenuating Circumstances
For students who have extenuating circumstances, please fill out the
extenuating circumstances form.
Some examples of extenuating circumstances include: Extended sickness, technical issues (broken laptop), family emergency, etc. You should not fill out this form for any short extensions because the policy is already designed to accommodate some flexibility.
If you would like to meet with a staff member and discuss your situation in more detail, feel free to sign up for a student support meeting here.
Student Support Meetings
Student support meetings are 20 minutes, online one-on-one meetings where you can speak to a staff member about DSP accommodations, extenuating circumstances, or general advice and support resources for success in the course.
You can book an appointment with us here, or by clicking on the “student support” tab at the upper right hand corner of the course website’s home page.
Processing Extensions
Extensions are not always reflected on Gradescope. You might see your assignment tagged as late on Gradescope, like this:
If your extension was approved after you submitted the assignment, then the autograder might mark your submission late and give you a score of 0.001.
If you see a score of 0.001, but that score is incorrect because you had an approved extension, then you can make a private post on Ed in the Logistics → Grade Corrections category, and we can re-run the autograder for you. Make sure to fill out the entire Ed post template!
It can take up to a week for scores on Gradescope to be synced to Beacon. If your Beacon grade still looks incorrect after a week (not earlier), then you can make a private post on Ed in the Logistics → Grade Corrections category.
Extensions Policy
Extensions will be processed on a case-by-case basis. Extensions are not guaranteed until you receive a status change in Beacon, or an email from cs61b-student-support@berkeley.edu if you requested an extension through the extenuating circumstances form.
It takes staff 1–2 business days to respond to extension requests. Mondays through Fridays are business days, and Saturdays and Sundays are not. If you request an extension request on Friday, you may not get a response until the following Monday. As a result, please be timely when requesting extensions. If you request an extension at 11:50pm on the due date, please don’t expect a 10-minute response time.
If you request an extension, but you have not heard back from staff, you should make your best submission (just in case the extension is not approved). Then, you can continue working after the deadline, pretending that your extension is approved. Remember, though, extensions are not guaranteed until you receive an official response.
Please do not post on Ed, email course emails, or email individual TAs/instructors about extension requests. This just creates extra work for us and slows down our response time. Once you’ve submitted the request through Beacon, we’ll process requests in order, and contacting us again will not speed things up.
Lastly, please note that you don’t have to fulfill certain “criteria” for us to justify your need for support and the approval of your extension requests. We hope that the extension request process is as inclusive and accommodating as possible, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you believe that you have been treated unjustly throughout the process.