| Class Participation via iClicker | 10% |
| Problem Sets (total of 4 assignments) | 15% |
| Midterm Exam 1 | 20% |
| Midterm Exam 2 | 20% |
| Final Exam | 35% |
Letter grades for the course are initially assigned on a "curve" which essentially means that students are in competition with each other.
At the end of the course, a total score is calculated for each student using their scores on the various assignments and exams together with the weighting noted above.
All students are then ranked from 1 to N where N is the number of students in the class
Final letter grades are then assigned using the following "GENERAL" criteria:
The top 30% of the class will receive "A" or "A-"
The next 40% of the class will receive "B+", "B", or "B-",
The next 30% of the class will receive "C+", "C", or "C-".
I will also calculate a grade for each student using the following percentiles:
Total Score 85-100% = A (A or A-)
Total Score 70-85% = B (B+, B, or B-)
Total Score 55-70% = C (C+, C, or C-)
Each student will receive the better grade from the 2 methods.
EXCEPTIONS to above rules:
1. Any student with an Overall Score of 0.55 (55%) or less MAY receive a "D" or "F". In this case I will examine the student's
scores during the quarter and decide if a non-passing grade is deserved (missing problem assignments
and/or no improvement noted during quarter are deserving of non-passing grade).
2. Students near the cutoff for each grade (e.g. just between an "A-" and a "B+") may be "bumped" up if exam and scores improved during the course, if all problem sets were turned in, and/or if they received full credit for class participation via the iClicker.