PHYS 515 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Course Grading
Course grading will proceed in compliance with University policy as given in Article 3, Part 1 of the Student Code.
Any discrepancies found in your student gradebook should be brought to the attention of your section instructor immediately.
Grading
Your final grade for Physics 515 will be based on your total score on all the course components. The total possible score is 1000 points.
Everyone starts with 0 credit points (CPs). You gain CPs by doing homework, doing the midterm and final exams, and handing in paper reviews. There will be 12 homework sets, which will be worth 66% of your grade. There will be one in-person midterm exam worth 10% of your grade and one final, take-home exam worth 16% of your grade. You will submit four short, 1-hour paper reviews, which make up 8% of your grade. You can earn up to 30 bonus points (2 points per week) by attending office hours.
Homework sheets will become available online on Tuesdays after class. The completed homework is due one week later on Tuesdays at 11:55pm US Central, and it has to be submitted via my.physics. Unless a valid, verifiable excuse is given, homework sets submitted late will receive a 10% penalty per day (between Friday and Monday, a 20% penalty applies). Homework sets turned in more than a week late will receive no credit.
Details about the midterm and final exams can be found here.
The 1-hour paper reviews are due in weeks 3, 6, 9, and 12 on Thursdays at 11:55pm Central US, and they have to be submitted via my.physics. Unless a valid, verifiable excuse is given, paper reviews submitted late will receive a 10% penalty per day (between Friday and Monday, a 20% penalty applies). Paper reviews turned in more than a week late will receive no credit.
Further details about the paper review can be found here.
| Course Component | Number of Assignments | Number Dropped per Semester | Maximum Points per Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homework | 12 | 1 | 660 |
| 1-hour paper review | 4 | 1 | 80 |
| Midterm exam | 1 | 0 | 100 |
| Final exam | 1 | 0 | 160 |
| Bonus points | 15 | 0 | 30 |
Final Grade
We use the following cutoff table to calculate final scores.
| Final Grade | Minimum Points |
|---|---|
| A+ | 970 |
| A | 930 |
| A- | 890 |
| B+ | 850 |
| B | 810 |
| B- | 770 |
| C+ | 730 |
| C | 690 |
| C- | 650 |
| D+ | 600 |
| D | 550 |
| D- | 500 |
| F | <500 |