There will be three exams, each covering roughly 1/3 of the course material. Each will count 25% of the final grade The last exam will also have a comprehensive portion which will count an additional 25%. Thus, the final exam will consist of two portions -- one covering the last 1/3 of the course, and one covering the entire course. The comprehensive part of the final exam will not focus as much on details as the other exams and will attempt to assess your ability to integrate the material of the course. The final exam will be a scheduled final which means that you will all take the exam at the same time during finals week. Please be aware of this as you make travel plans for the between semester vacation.
While the focus of this course will be more on how psychologists gain and use knowledge about humans, there is also a fair amount of factual detail, terminology, and the like which you must master. Your knowledge of this material can be most easily and fairly tested through multiple choice and short answer type questions. Thus each exam will have these types of questions. We will use longer essay questions to assess your more general understanding as well as your ability to apply the material you have learned.
The CD which came with the text has practice exams and also offers other exercises that may enhance your ability to study the material efficiently and effectively. You are not required to use these resources, but the prudent student would at least see whether they are helpful.
Multiple choice portions of the exams will be graded on a percentage basis, so your grade will be the percentage correct. Short answer and essay questions will be graded on a 100 point scale with 90-100 being various degrees of A, 80-89 falling into the B range, etc. The grade for the entire exam will be the average of the two (or a weighted average if the essay and MC portions are not equally weighted). Thus a student who gets 95% correct on the MC and gets a grade of 85 on the essay portions would get a grade of 90 for the entire exam.
The final grade for the course will be the mean of the four exams (the 3 section exams plus the comprehensive). The numerical grades are converted to letter grades using the following system.
| 97-100 | A+ |
| 93-96 | A |
| 90-92 | A- |
| 87-89 | B+ |
| 83-86 | B |
| 80-82 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 73-76 | C |
| 70-72 | C- |
| 67-69 | D+ |
| 63-66 | D |
| 60-62 | D- |
| 59 and below | F |
Should the class mean for the final grade fall below 80, we will adjust the final grades so that the class mean does become 80. There are a variety of ways of doing that, but using a curve is the most easily understood. If we use a curve then the attempt is to get approximately 10% As, 20% Bs, 40% Cs, 20% Ds and 10% Fs. However -- and this is important -- if a curve or other adjustment is used, your final grade will not be lower than the one you would get from the table above. In other words, you get the grade which is the higher of the table above or the curve. If you happen to be one of the very few Rice students who is obsessed with grades, this system allows you always to know exactly where you stand in terms of your grade. Having said all that, it's been my experience that it is not necessary to use a curve in a class such as this one.
Bonus points made from extra experiment participation are added to the final average.Thus of your exam average is an 85 and you have 2 extra points from experiments your grade would be raised to an 87, effectively from a B to B+.
It is your responsibility to show up on time for all exams. Emergencies occur, of course, and under such circumstances a makeup exam can be given within one week of the time of the original exam. Emergencies are major illness, accidents, family crises and the like Forgetting that you had an exam, having three other exams in other courses the same week, your roommate's shutting off the alarm the morning of the exam, while major inconveniences, are not emergencies.
If you have an emergency, you must notify the instructor preferably by e-mail or phone message preferably before the exam but immediately thereafter if possible. If the emergency is legitimate you will be asked to contact one of the TAs to schedule a makeup exam, and ordinarily this must be taken within a week of the original exam. The makeup exam will likely not be the same as the original exam and may not have the same format (e.g, may be more heavily short answer).
If you are having health or psychological problems it would be a good idea to discuss them with me. Often we can make arrangements to help you through difficult times, and it is easier to make such arrangements if I am aware of the problems. Obviously any such conversations are confidential.