Programming Help Policy

Students seeking help from one of the CS 1704 Teaching Assistants (TAs) are expected to have made a valid effort at solving a programming problem on their own first. Prior to getting help from one of the TAs students should have performed the following tasks:

Created an design/outline of their problem solution.
Converted their design/outline into C++ code.
Documented their program as explained in the Elements of Programming Style.
Be able to explain their code and describe the part of problem/code with which they need help.

Students should NOT seek programming help with a problem from a TA if:

They do not have a problem solution or have not made an attempt at a solution.
They are unable to explain their solution strategy or they cannot explain the logic of their code.
They do not have any documentation, (or they have almost no documentation).
Their documentation is simply a restating of the program instructions.
They have no indentation or layout of their code.
They need help with concepts that were covered by previous programs.

Students who have NOT performed the required steps before requesting help from a TA may be instructed to first carry out the necessary work before help is rendered.