Determining the Final Grade

It is unfortunate that your entire academic career is summed up as a list of letter grades for each of your various courses. Letter grades hide an enormous amount of information. It is particularly unfortunate that grades do not always reflect a student's ability to succeed at the next level. For example a student with a 4.0 GPA is much more likely to be admitted to any post-graduate program than a student with a 3.0 GPA. Yet many times the "four pointer" was so well prepared for college that he/she loafed through course work, while the "three pointer" had a tougher time but learned as much or more than the other student. Grades are often unfair that way. We've done what we can to help "level the playing field." Focus on learning and you should do fine.

Below is a breakdown of individual assignments and their corresponding contributions to the final letter grade in this course. To keep it simple we use a 100 point scale for the course, with a percentage contributed by each type of assignment.

Grading systems tend to be regressive. That is, you start with a score of 100% and then with each mistake you make you lose points. In this course you can earn bonus points on the prelab assignments and final exam. Bonus points serve to reward students who perform above the standard for excellence that is established for this introductory level laboratory course without penalizing other students. They also permit a student to earn back points that were lost to a mistake. In this way the grading is somewhat progessive instead of regressive. The most bonus points are available on the final exam, thus students who show improvement and long term retention of skills will benefit the most.

Many faculty grade on a curve so that adjustments can be made for the level of difficulty of exams and other assignments. Unfortunately, excessive curving leads to "grade inflation," a situation that devaluates very high grades. An excellent performance deserves to be rewarded. Except for minor adjustments based upon the final distribution of scores, this course will not be graded on a curve. Bonus points will subsitute for the usual curve, thus the grades are "curved on merit." Below is a breakdown of final course scores and corresponding letter grades. Some adjustments may be made based upon the distribution of scores.

It makes no sense to apply a (+) or (-) to a grade of D, since a D is already considered to be an unsatisfactory grade.

Assessing your progress

You will receive periodic updates on your total course score. The numbers should be close, but the instructor cannot guarantee accuracy because the number of students in the course generates quite a work load. We do make mistakes, admittedly. Keep in mind that the last research paper counts for 15% of the course grade, and historically is the most difficult assignment of the three research papers. Also keep in mind that the final exam counts for 15% of the course grade and that despite the availability of bonus points more students have done worse on the final than better, compared with their performances in the rest of the course.