A student completing 6.034 will be able to:

And many 6.034 students will, as measured by exit survey:

A student completing 6.034 will be able to:

Key:

How do the versions of 6.034 differ?

6.034, fall version, versus 6.034, spring version:

• Professor Patrick H. Winston is in charge in the fall, Professor Tomas Lozano-Perez in the spring.
• Grade distributions do not differ significantly. 
• The spring version will be considerably different from a year ago, as it was taught experimentally for the first time in 2002, and Professor Lozano-Perez contemplates substantial changes. 
• A large fraction of the material taught covers the same ground. The most conspicuous differences are that the fall version focuses toward the end of the semester on models of aspects of human intelligence and the spring version includes a major section on formal logic. 
• The spring version places somewhat greater emphasis on programming assignments. 
• The fall version includes two one-hour lectures, one one-hour tutorial, and one one-hour recitation; the spring version offers two one-and-a-half hour lectures and one one-hour tutorial.
  

• In contrast to the 2001 fall version, students in 2002 will not be required to submit weekly lesson plans. In their place, we expect to require a few pages of analysis on assigned readings from time to time.
• As in 2001, a special "intensified" section, in which students do projects in addition to the other work in the subject will be offered. Students in the projects section will earn three units of extra credit.
  

No. In our survey of year 2000 students, the textbook was rated dead last in value, behind the on-line tutor, live tutorials, recitations, and lectures. A substantial fraction of the material in the subject is discussed in Artificial Intelligence, 3rd edition (Patrick H. Winston, available at Quantum Books, Amazon.com, ...), which may be helpful to those students who like to learn from textbooks, but the cost is outrageous, and most year 2000 and 2001 students did not touch it.

During a typical week, there will be:

• Two lectures
• One human tutorial 
• One on-line tutorial 
• One problem set 
• One recitation

Yes. We believe that the lectures, tutorials, and recitations are an important part of the MIT experience, and we work hard to make them interesting and useful.

• Lectures introduce powerful ideas and relate the material to the "big picture." We often include questions on the quizes and final that you can answer only by faithful lecture attendance. 
• Tutorials provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and to demonstrate your understanding. A substantial part of your grade is determined by your tutorial participation. 
• Recitations play a major role in clarifying the material and demonstrating how problems are solved.
  

We expect to form a weighted sum as follows:

• 0.3 x your numeric score on final
• 0.25 x your numeric score on quiz 1
• 0.25 x your numeric score on quiz 2 
• 0.2 x the score assessed for your tutorial participation and off-line homework (if any)

Then, we will combine the result with your performance on the on-line problems, which will be represented by a score from zero to one. We expect you to work the on-line problems until you get them right, thus earning a score of one.

Combine means multiply by (min~1.0~(sqrt~(/~s~0.9))). This function looks like this:

Thus, you will want to do all the on-line problems faithfully, both because of the direct impact those problems will have on your grade and because of their close connection to material that will appear on examinations.

Following institute guidelines, we give grades based on our assessment of how weighted sums translate to qualitative performance, rather than a curve (see the back of one of your previous grade reports).

Results from previous years indicate that the distribution of grades will approximate the following distribution, but note that the actual boundaries may be higher or lower.

20% A
30% B 
40% C

We discuss the bottom 10% and borderline cases at length at the end of the semester.

The subject is not centered on programming, but a substantial fraction of the homework requires an understanding of Scheme and working out some small Scheme programs. The quizzes and final do not include questions centered on Scheme programming, but they sometimes include questions described, in part, in Scheme. Veterans of 6.001 should have no trouble with the programming involved; students skilled in some other programming language will have to spend a couple of weekends reading the Scheme book and should work out a catch-up plan with their tutor; students with no programming experience are advised not to take the subject.