Please note: The exam 1 average score was 76.5% (that's 86/112)
The median score was 77.7% (half did better than that, half did worse.)
Grade-getter
can email you your individual grades for the exam. (As the semester goes
on, this link will include your cumulative CAPA score, and future midterms
as well)
You get your exams back in recitation, but I will keep
the bubble sheets. If you want to "challenge" your score, you should
FIRST look carefully at the exam solutions posted above. If you STILL
think a mistake has been made, send me an email so I can send you a
report telling which problems the scanner claims you missed. Then look
over your exam and the solutions on the web again. (Please be aware
that it's extremely rare that the scanner mis-reads a bubble
sheet!) If after all this you still think there was a scanning error,
come see me during office hours.
Please note: The exam 3 average score was 68.3%
The median score was 69.3% (half did better than that, half did worse.)
The distribution again looks very nice. This midterm was clearly a little harder
than the others (the average was 6% lower) but still, I'm happy with
how well the class is doing.
I don't assign a letter grade to individual exams, since it's only your
final total score that really matters for your grade.
The average "partial total score" is 76.4%.The median is 77.5%
NOTE! The partial total score is computed like this: Each one of the
three midterms is worth 12.5% of your total Physics 2010 grade, and the
CAPA's will, in the end, be worth around 16% (give or take a percent or
two) So
I have computed .125*(exam 1, as %) + .125*(exam 2, as %) + .125*(exam 3, as
%) + .16*(CAPA 1-11, as %), and then divided it by the max possible (which
is 53.5) This gives you a score from 0-100, which gradegetter calls "partial
total score"
IMPORTANT: At the end of the semester, the final will be added in
with a weight of 27.5%, this will have a very strong effect on your grade!
The labs will add in too, with a weight of 15%. The
quizzes and long answer CAPA's will be only 1.5% or maybe 2% each (bringing
CAPA+quiz +long answer CAPA up to a grand total of 20%), so they have a
very negligible effect on anyones grade.
I WILL drop your
worst CAPA, but I haven't done this yet! Remember, I do this for everyone,
so it won't have too much effect on where you sit in the distribution...
Typically I set the B/C boundary at or near the median, so
that basically half the class gets A's and B's.
I'm guessing, based on how things are
going, that 90-100% (on your TOTAL score at the end of the semester) will get you an A
(I promise not to set that boundary
higher than 90%, no matter how well everyone does!) If the class as a whole
does quite poorly on
the final, I could always LOWER that boundary. (Last year it was around 88%
or so, but the midterm scores were all a little lower than this year)
The criterion for an
F is less than half of class average. I haven't set the D/C boundary yet,
but most likely if you're in the bottom 10-15% at the end of the class you can
count on a D or F)
Grade-getter
can email you your individual grades.
(This now also includes your cumulative CAPA score, and 1st two exams as well)
Please check the scores grade-getter sends you when possible. E.g, check
that your
1st exam score is the same as it was before. Is the long answer grade (which you will see on the exam you get back in recitation)
correct? Let me know if you detect any problems.
You get your exams back in recitation, but I will keep
the bubble sheets. If you want to "challenge" your score, you should
FIRST look carefully at the exam solutions posted above. If you STILL
think a mistake has been made, send me an email so I can send you a
report telling which problems the scanner claims you missed. Then look
over your exam and the solutions on the web again. (Please be aware
that it's extremely rare that the scanner mis-reads a bubble
sheet!) If after all this you still think there was a scanning error,
come see me during office hours.
Final Exam Information:
The final exam will be in the WEST SIDE of Coor's Event Center,
Friday Dec. 17,
7:30-10:30 AM. (!) (I'm sorry, but there is no mechanism for
taking the final at any other time)
Here is the seating arrangement.
PLEASE LOOK AT IT, YOU NEED TO SIT IN THE RIGHT SECTION! Thanks.
Here is last year's final exam Please Note: Last year, we covered CH 13 (Heat and Thermo) but we
won't this semester, so you can ignore such questions when you're studying!
ALSO NOTE: If you want to see the solutions to that exam, check out my
last years 2010 web page.
Final Exam version 2 solution set
As always, Netscape does a lousy job converting Word to HTML, I'm sorry. I
hope you can read/figure out most of it! If not, let me know and I'll try
to improve it. (I notice that e.g. the equation numbering got totally screwy.)
Please note: The final exam average score was 63.5% (that's 107/168)
The median score was 64.3% (half did better than that, half did worse.)
If you want your final exam back, stop by my office sometime early
next semester!
If you really want to see which problems you got wrong, I can cut
and paste from the Individual Student Reports (ISR) and email them to
you. If everyone asks, I'll
be overwhelmed! So, FIRST look at the gradegetter output, and THEN stop
by and pick up your exam, and THEN check the solutions (above). Only
after that, email and ask me for the ISR.
As described in the syllabus, your total grade is 20% HW, 15% lab,
12.5% for each midterm, and 27.5% for the final exam. (The only bit not
explained in the syllabus is that the "20% HW" consists, specifically,
of 16% CAPA, 2% quizzes from recitation, and 2% long answer writeups
from recitation)