Grading for Math 132, Fall 2003

    Your grade for Math 132 will be based on exam scores, quiz scores and scores on graded lab reports from Math 132L.  (Normally, students will receive the same letter grade for Math 132L; however the Math 132L grade may be lowered if all the required labs were not completed.) These will be combined as described below to produce your TOTAL SCORE for the course.

    Your TOTAL SCORE for the course will be based on your test and quiz scores, written homework, and lab reports.
     

    • The 4 exams will be based on 100 points each.  Each of the exam scores will be weighted to contribute 18% of your TOTAL SCORE. Your final exam score will replace your lowest previous exam score unless your final score is your lowest exam score. The final exam score cannot be replaced.
    • Your quiz total will be rescaled to a basis of 100 points and will contribute 18% toward your TOTAL SCORE.  (See the material on Discussion Sections about scoring quizzes.)
    • Your lab scores will be rescaled to a basis of 100 points and will contribute 10% toward your TOTAL SCORE.  (See the Labs for more information about lab reports.)

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    To illustrate, here's the calculation of the TOTAL SCORE for John Doe.
     
    Hypothetical Data for John Doe

    Exam Scores      Exam 1    83 (out of 100)
                               Exam 2    68 (out of 100)
                               Exam 3    71 (out of 100)

                               FINAL      84 (out of 100)

    Quiz Scores       Q1=6, Q2=6, Q3=3, Q4= . , Q5=4, 
                              Q6=5, Q7=  . , Q8=4, Q9 = . , Q10 = . 
                                   (  " . " indicates a missing quiz score:  absent from discussion
                                   section.  These become 0's )

    Lab Total            73 out of 100
     

     
    Calculation of TOTAL PERCENT SCORE  for John Doe
    John's Final Exam score (84) is better than his Exam 2 score (68), so we replace the 68 with 84.

    We count only 6 quizzes so there are 36 total possible quiz points.  Only the 6 best quizzes will count, but we will discard at most 2 of the last 4 quizzes.  (See the syllabus section on Discussion Sections.)  Since John must keep at least 2 of the last 4 quiz scores, his quiz points will total 

    Q1 + Q2 + Q5 + Q6 + Q8 + Q10 = 6 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 4 + 0 = 25 out of a possible 36.
    25/36 rescales to approximately 69/100.

    John Doe's TOTAL SCORE = .18* (83 + 84 + 71 + 84 + 69)  + .10*(73) = 77.7

    So what is his letter grade for the course?  The information below gives some guidelines to help John think about his letter grade.
      General guidelines about final letter grades:

                  In past semesters, calculus II has had the following final course grade distribution:
       
       

      Letter Grade 
           Distribution  (%)
      A 4
      A- 10
      B+ 22
      B 32
      B- 44
      C+ 64
      C 84
      C- 92
      D 96

      The distribution represents the percentage of students who received a particular letter grade, so 4% of the students received an A, 10% received an A- or higher (making it 6% of the students who earned an A-), and so forth.  We will continue to follow this trend, with the caveat that we will not be more strict than the following scale.  (Note that the scale is in terms of your total score in the class.)

       
      TOTAL SCORE GUARANTEED LETTER GRADE
      (possibly with a "+" or " -" attached)
      90% - 100 % A 
      80% - 89.99% B
      65% - 79.99% C
      50% - 64.99% D
      Below 50% NCR  (F)
      What does this mean for you?  When you check your exam grade online, you will receive two numbers:  your total score and where your score falls in relation to the rest of the class.  The latter number will be in the form of a percent, so if your percent is 20, then by our scale above, your test letter grade is a B+.   We hope that this gives you an idea of how you are doing throughout the semester.  As for John Doe, his grade is at least a C (probably a C+) if we use our most strict scale.  Suppose John's total score fell in the top 42% of the class.  By our "distribution" scale, John would receive a B-.
       
       

      Students taking the course with the "Credit/No Credit" ("Pass/Fail") grading option must earn a grade of "C-" or better to receive a "pass".

      Any students taking the course on an "audit" basis should talk with the instructorto determine what criteria will be used award a grade of "successful audit."