Calculating Your Grade
Go to the Homework Service for all of your scores. Clicker scores are also there. NOTHING is on BlackBoard. Please see Note 2 below about exam 3 scoring.
Note 1: Exam 3 scoring: Your exam03 score is fixed OUTSIDE the HWS. If you got the True/False question
right (you answered "False"), your RAW score on the HWS is
posted at 10 points less than
what will be recorded - so add 10 points to your score and divide by 3 to get
your percentage. If you answered "True" (which is incorrect), then your RAW
score on the HWS is correct, although you must divide it by 3 to get your
percentage score. Once again, this special scoring is being handled
OUTSIDE the HWS.
Note 2:Your clicker scores are on the HWS under quiz01. You raw point total was capped (the cap is different for each class) and then your percentage determined.
Note 3: If your final exam score is higher than your exam average (best 3 out of 4), then we will count your final exam as 50% of your overall grade and lower your exam average to 40%. If your exam average is higher then it will count 60% and your final exam 30%. We will apply the grading scheme that gives you the highest score. Please do not email us about which scheme to use.
YOUR FINAL LETTER GRADE
You now KNOW the curves so you can calculate your grade. You must make at least the cut-off score or higher to get the appropriate grade. Yes, some students will miss the cut-off by as little as a tenth of a point. Please read the following about being on the bubble.
On the Bubble - Borderline cases for letter grades
What is "on the bubble"? The bubble is when you have an overall score of 79.33 and the break for getting a "B" in the course is set at 79.50. It simply means that you have NOT met the criteria for a particular letter grade but are very very close - as in a few 1/10ths or even 1/100ths of a point. What's my method for determining bubble cases?
First, I look at your score on the final exam. If you did much better on the final than other work AND it is considerably higher than the grade break you will receive the higher grade. Next, I look at what your score was on the dropped exam. If you completely bombed the dropped exam, you will most likely NOT get the higher grade. If your dropped exam is actually quite close to the average of the other 3 AND your overall score is only a few tenths (as in 2 or 3 tenths, not 2 or 3 whole percentage points) away, you'll probably get the higher grade. And third, I'll look at your homework scores. Did you do all of them? Are the scores in keeping with your exam averages? Did you do ALL the work for the course?
Go to the Homework Service for all of your scores. Clicker scores are also there. NOTHING is on BlackBoard. Please see Note 2 below about exam 3 scoring.
Once again, please note that the Homework Service DOES NOT calculate your final grade (score) - I do that via my own local files. I DO extract your SCORES (percentages and in some cases, RAW scores) from the Homework Service for each assignment though. Actually the clicker scores come from the iClicker grading program and we then upload your scores to the HWS.
| Exam Curves Please use the following add-on percentage points for each of your exams to get the "official gradebook" score (the HWService does NOT do this). DO find your PERCENT score from the homework service, then add the following amounts to those scores and you'll have your official gradebook score. |
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| Exam 1 | Exam 2 | Exam 3 (see Note 1) |
Exam 4 | Final |
| zero | zero | zero | +4 | McCord +9 Vanden Bout +3 |
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Note 2:Your clicker scores are on the HWS under quiz01. You raw point total was capped (the cap is different for each class) and then your percentage determined.
Note 3: If your final exam score is higher than your exam average (best 3 out of 4), then we will count your final exam as 50% of your overall grade and lower your exam average to 40%. If your exam average is higher then it will count 60% and your final exam 30%. We will apply the grading scheme that gives you the highest score. Please do not email us about which scheme to use.
YOUR FINAL LETTER GRADE
You now KNOW the curves so you can calculate your grade. You must make at least the cut-off score or higher to get the appropriate grade. Yes, some students will miss the cut-off by as little as a tenth of a point. Please read the following about being on the bubble.
On the Bubble - Borderline cases for letter grades
What is "on the bubble"? The bubble is when you have an overall score of 79.33 and the break for getting a "B" in the course is set at 79.50. It simply means that you have NOT met the criteria for a particular letter grade but are very very close - as in a few 1/10ths or even 1/100ths of a point. What's my method for determining bubble cases?
First, I look at your score on the final exam. If you did much better on the final than other work AND it is considerably higher than the grade break you will receive the higher grade. Next, I look at what your score was on the dropped exam. If you completely bombed the dropped exam, you will most likely NOT get the higher grade. If your dropped exam is actually quite close to the average of the other 3 AND your overall score is only a few tenths (as in 2 or 3 tenths, not 2 or 3 whole percentage points) away, you'll probably get the higher grade. And third, I'll look at your homework scores. Did you do all of them? Are the scores in keeping with your exam averages? Did you do ALL the work for the course?
There you have some of the criteria for beating the bubble. The only SURE way to beat the bubble is to NEVER be on it to begin with. Stay on the high side of the grade breaks and you'll never have to worry about these details.