Grading Formula and Assigned Work

Your final average is a weighted combination of your averages on examlets and other PrairieLearn assignments. Specifically:

When we translate these averages into final letter grades, a score of 90 will be at least an A-, 80 at least a B-, 70 at least a C-, 50 at least a D-. If the raw scores are running excessively low, we may revise these cutoffs to be more generous. However, this has happened only very rarely in recent years. In recent terms, around three quarters of the grades have been A's and B's.

Monitoring grades

You are responsible for keeping an eye on your PrairieLearn gradebook and promptly reporting apparent errors. See the FAQ for how to report grading and/or entry problems.

If the scores you are receiving alarm you, check out this page.

Readings and lectures

On Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, class will begin with a small lecture to cover important course material before we do group problem solving. However, you are also expected to prepare for each lecture by doing the posted readings. If after our in-class lecture you still have questions, please see the posted lecture videos and accompanying notes for clarification.  

Examlets

There will be weekly examlets starting on the second week of the term---these account for most of your final course average. We plan 7 weekly examlets (one of which is the 'final'), each 1 hour 50 minutes long.

Sign up for each examlet far in advance! The CBTF usually opens signups on PrairieTest 11 days before each examlet. Timeslots may fill up, and we will not accept "the CBTF ran out of timeslots" as an excuse for missing an examlet.

We do not drop any examlet scores. See the missed work page for how to arrange a makeup.

The final examlet which will partially cover the most recent material like any other examlet, and partially review old material. The final is the same length and worth the same amount as a normal examlet.

Questions on examlets are sometimes exact copies of homework or study problems, or problems used in past terms. They might be entirely new. Or they might look similar to past problems but differ in critical details. We make no promises about whether you will or won't be doing a problem that you've seen before. Similarly, makeups and retake exams may use previously-seen problems and/or new ones. Therefore, when studying for an examlet, concentrate on mastering general skills rather than memorizing specific solutions.

We will allow one retake. Please see Piazza for details.

In-class problems and Homeworks

Each class (MWRF) will consist of a short lecture followed by in-class problem solving. You will be assigned approximately 3 problems each day for a total of ~12 problems each week. On Monday of the following week, we will randomly select one problem from that set to be graded; it will be due at midnight. We will grade for completion and return it promptly with feedback on Tuesday to help you prepare for the upcoming examlet. You can gain up to 5% extra credit on each weekly problem submission by writing your solutions nicely in LaTeX!

The weekly homework will be due at the end of the exam period (on Thursday). These are autograded on PrairieLearn, and you can submit them as many times as needed to get full credit.

We'll drop your lowest in-class problem grade and your lowest homework grade when computing your final averages.