Calculating Your Grade
Go to Quest for all of your assignment scores. I do NOT use BlackBoard! Please note that Quest does NOT calculate your overall course grade (score) - I do that via my own local files. I DO extract your SCORES (percentages and in some cases, RAW scores) from Quest for each assignment though.
Your overall score in the course will be calculated by different three methods. The HIGHEST score out of the 3 methods will be your overall score in the course. This means you do NOT need tell Dr. McCord which method to use.
Final exam score = which ever final exam you took. Final-70x for the 11am class, Final-75 for the 1pm class, and Final-80 for the 2pm class.
Method 1
- 5% Homework (average highest 11, drop lowest 3)
- 5% iClicker
- 60% Exams (best 3-exam avg, drop lowest exam)
- 30% Final
Method 2
- 5% Homework (average highest 11, drop lowest 3)
- 5% iClicker
- 40% Exams (best 3-exam avg, drop lowest exam)
- 50% Final
Method 3
- 5% Homework (average highest 11, drop lowest 3)
- 5% iClicker
- 90% Exams (4-exam avg, average all 4 exams)
- 0% Final
Grade Breaks - calculate to nearest 0.01 decimal place!
- A ≥ 90.00
- A- ≥ 86.67
- B+ ≥ 83.33
- B ≥ 80.00
- B- ≥ 76.67
- C+ ≥ 73.33
- C ≥ 70.00
- C- ≥ 66.67
- D+ ≥ 63.33
- D ≥ 60.00
- D- ≥ 56.67
- F< 56.67
Must EQUAL or CLEAR the number given. I do NOT round your scores to whole numbers - I use 4 significant figures - that's 2 places AFTER the decimal.
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. There is no "gray area" here, but a very black and white set of cut-offs for letter grades.
There are NO Borderline Cases! Clear the Cut-Offs or get the LOWER grade
Realize from day one that your score will determine your overall grade and nothing more. You MUST clear the cutoffs given above in order to make that grade. I will NOT change these whatsoever during the semester - they are etched in STONE! So you will know exactly where you are gradewise thoughout the semester. If you email me about your grade, I will look at your score and give you what the score indicates. It's that simple.