| Psychology 217-218: General Information | Psychology 217-218: 2001 Specific Information |
There are nine closed-book quizzes during the quarter, one every Monday morning, beginning the second Monday of the quarter. Quizzes cover past and currently-assigned readings. Each quiz is graded on a scale from 0 to 12.
There are five open-book hour exams during the quarter, one every other Wednesday, beginning the second Wednesday of the quarter. Each exam is graded on a scale from 0 to 100.
There is a homework assignment due on the Friday prior to each hour exam. Each homework assignment is graded on a scale from 0 to 5. There is a final homework assigned during the last week of the course, which is graded on a scale from 0 to 2.5.
A two-hour open-book final exam, given during final-exam week, is graded on a scale from 0 to 100.
At the end of the quarter, your decimal grade for the course is computed via the following steps:
The sum of the 9 quiz grades is computed. Refer to this sum as Q. Because each of the 9 quizzes is graded on a 0-12 score, Q can range from 0 to 108.
Each hour-exam score is supplemented by the associated homework score. So, for example, if you received a score of 80 on your Exam #3, and a score of 4 on the associated Homework #3, your supplemented hour-exam score for Exam #3 would be 84.
Over the quarter you will have 5 supplemented hour-exam scores. The lowest is dropped from further consideration, leaving four.
At this point, you will therefore have five scores: The four remaining supplemented hour-exam scores, plus Q, the quiz total. Both the mean and median of these five scores is computed, and the highest (mean or median) is called the midterm score. Refer to this score as M.
The final-exam score is supplemented by the final homework score. So, for example, if you received a score of 91 on your final exam, and a score of 2 on the final homework your supplemented final-exam score would be 93. Refer to this score as F.
The two scores M and F will be averaged to produce a combined score with averaged of 2/3 and 1/3, with the 2/3 weighting going to whichever is highest, M or F. So, for example, if M were 84, and F were 93, your averaged score would be (1/3)(84) + (2/3)(93) = 28 + 62 = 90.
Finally, your final grade will be converted to a decimal (transcript) grade using the formula,
Decimal Grade = (averaged score - 55)/10
which means that if you get an averaged score of 95 or higher, you get a 4.0; if you get an averaged score of 55 or lower than 55, you get a 0.0, and there is a linear interpolation in between (so for example, an averaged score of 70 corresponds to a 1.5, an averaged score of 80 corresponds to a 2.5, and so on).
The course grading scheme described above is designed to be very forgiving. Correspondingly, the makeup policy is draconian: In a word, nothing can be made up for any reason. If you miss a quiz, or fail to turn in a homework assignment on time, you receive a zero for it. If you miss an exam you simililarly receive a zero, but it will likely be eventually dropped (see Step 3 in the grade-computation process above).