Your course grade will be based on two equally-weighted components:
Grade Assignment
You must turn in at least half of the homework and take both exams, or
you will get an F. Beyond that, grades will be assigned on the
following scale:
| A: | 81-100% |
| B: | 61-80% |
| C: | 41-60% |
| D: | 0-40% |
Note: this doesn't mean it's easy to get an A, it means
my assignments, my exams and my grading are all rigorous
Late Homework and Makeup Exams
Due to a recent decision by the Faculty Senate, I am required to give
students an opportunity to make up work missed due to University
business, and a policy equivalent to my old policy of simply allowing
all students to drop one assignment has been explicitly used as an
example of not meeting this requirement. Since only granting this
option to students on University business would be blatantly unfair, I
will be accepting late homework under the following conditions:
-
If you will be unable to complete an assignment on time, send me
e-mail in advance explaining the circumstances, and the
desired extension. If, in my judgement, the circumstances are
unavoidable and the extension is reasonable, I will grant the
extension. I reserve the right to require documentation of the
circumstances.
-
If, as a result of an emergency (such as a medical emergency),
you are unable to turn in an assignment on time, let me know the
circumstances as soon as possible. If, in my judgement, the
circumstances were an unavoidable emergency, I will take the
homework late. I reserve the right to require documentation of
the circumstances.
-
Note: conflicts with homework in other classes, simply
failing to complete an assignment on time, and oversleeping, are
not reasons I will accept for late homework.
Grading Standards
It's important to remember that, while I will supervise the TA and I
will discuss the grading with him, I will not in general review
in detail each of the problems he grades (if I did, there
wouldn't be any point in having a TA; I'd spend as much time going
over his work as I would have grading). So, if in your opinion
these standards are not being adhered to, you need to inform me of the
situation as soon as possible.
-
If this class has a TA, the TA will grade the assignments and I
will grade the exams.
- Each question will be given a clearly stated maximum point
value, on the original assignment or exam. Subparts of
questions may or may not have such a maximum. The points don't
have to add up to 100.
- The assignments are equally weighted, not the points. If one
assignment is graded on a total of ten points, and another is
graded on a total of twenty points, then the points on the
latter assignment are only worth half as much as the ones on the
former.
-
Some questions lend themselves to having particular point values
removed (ie -1, -5, etc) for particular mistakes, while
for others it is more appropriate to simply assign an overall
score based on the quality of an answer. In either case, there
will be a note on your assignment stating why you didn't get
full credit on every problem.
The University's policy on
assigning Incompletes on classes is stated in the Bulletin as:
``Instructors may assign I grades only if the student is unable to
complete the course due to circumstances beyond the student's control
that develop after the last day to withdraw from the course. Examples
of appropriate circumstances include documented illness, documented
death or crisis in the student's immediate family, and similar
circumstances. Job related circumstances are generally not
appropriate grounds for assigning an I grade.'' I have discovered
(somewhat to my chagrin) that I grades are reviewed by
the Dean's Office, and that these standards are being enforced at that
level whether I want to assign an I or not.
