GRADING POLICY FOR COLLEGE ALGEBRA STUDENTS
The purpose of this document is to provide you with a precise description
of how student grades will be calculated.
College algebra students will be evaluated according to their
performance on weekly homework assignments,
3 fifty minute tests, and a
final examination.
Grade = HW + 3 tests + 1 final
Homework is assigned daily and collected weekly.
A
record of all assigned homework problems is maintained
on my web page.
During the semester eleven homework assignments will be given.
I will count only the best ten homeworks toward your
course grade. The purpose of discarding the lowest
homework grade is so that I don't have to judge
if one student's reason for not turning in a homework
assignment is a valid reason, while another student's
reason is invalid. Instead, everybody's reason is equally valid.
The grader does not have time to grade all of the problems
you turn in, so I will select problems each week for the grader
to grade. The same number of problems will be selected
each week, so that all homework grades represent approximately
the same amount of effort. If you have questions about
the answers to assignments which the grader did not grade,
see me and I will go over those problems with you.
The grader does not have time to grade late homework. Therefore,
late homework is not accepted.
Each homework is worth ten points. The ten best homework assignments
therefore contribute 100 points to your final grade.
There will be 3 fifty minute tests, each worth 100 points.
There will be a common final exam for all Math 111 sections.
It will be worth 200 points.
GRADE CALCULATION
Your grade will be calculated by the formula
HW (100pts) + tests (3 x 100pts) + final (200 pts) = total (600pts).
Once a total is determined, you will be assigned a letter grade
according to the following scale:
A: 90--100 per cent
B: 80--90 per cent
C: 70--80 per cent
D: 60--70 per cent
F: 0--60 per cent
NOTE: I may curve this scale to the advantage of students,
but I won't curve it in the other direction. Therefore, it
may happen that to get an A you need only 87--100 per cent,
but it won't happen that I change the scale so that
you need 93--100 per cent to get an A.
Occasionally I will suggest challenge problems on topics
related to the
course material. These problems are meant to be fun puzzles.
You can improve your grade by trying to solve some
challenge problems, but it will not hurt you if you
don't try to solve them. At the end of the semester
I will calculate all grades ignoring any solutions
of challenge problems. After the course grades have been determined,
I will go back and look at the record of solutions to homework
problems. Then I will give five additional
points for each correctly solved challenge problem.
So, for example, if your course grade is 530pts/600pts
and the cut-off for an A is 540pts, and it happens that you have
correctly solved two challenge problems, then your grade will
be increased to 540pts = A!
The rules for challenge problems are the following.
- Challenge problems must be worked alone.
- Challenge problems assigned on any date can be turned in at
any time before the final exam.
- To get credit for solving a challenge problem, your answer
must be completely correct.
- You are free to attempt the same challenge problem
as many times as you like until you answer it correctly.
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Last modified on August 30, 1997.