Grades

For three-credit students, the cumulative score for the semester is a weighted sum of component scores, with the following weights:

  • 15%: Quizzes

  • 45%: Machine problems

  • 10%: Exam 1

  • 10%: Exam 2

  • 20%: Final exam

For four-credit students, the cumulative score for the semester is a weighted sum of component scores, with the following weights:

  • 12%: Quizzes

  • 33%: Machine problems

  • 25%: Project

  • 7.5%: Exam 1

  • 7.5%: Exam 2

  • 15%: Final exam

Extra Credit

  • Extra credit will be available on some of the MPs. This counts for up to 10% of whatever points the MP is worth (so for 3-credit students, each MP extra credit can add up to 0.75% to your cumulative score; for 4-credit stuents, each MP extra credit can add up to 0.55%). Late penalties are calculated separately for the MP and for the extra credit, e.g., if your MP is on time but your extra credit is 10 weeks late, the lateness of the extra credit does not penalize the regular MP score.

  • Extra credit is also available for correctly answering the questions of other students on CampusWire. This counts for up to 1% of your cumulative semester grade.

Grade Cutoffs

Grade cutoffs are approximately as follows, where \(\mu\) is the class average, \(\sigma\) is the standard deviation. These thresholds are not guaranteed, but they rarely change by much.

\[ \begin{align}\begin{aligned}&A+:\min\left(0.99,\mu+1.5\sigma\right), A:\min\left(0.94,\mu+0.5\sigma\right), A-:\min\left(0.90,\mu+0.25\sigma\right)\\&B+:\min\left(0.85,\mu\right), B:\min\left(0.80,\mu-0.75\sigma\right), B-:\min\left(0.75,\mu-\sigma\right)\\&C+:\min\left(0.70,\mu-1.25\sigma\right), C:\min\left(0.65,\mu-2\sigma\right), C-:\min\left(0.60,\mu-2.25\sigma\right)\\&D+:\min\left(0.55,\mu-2.5\sigma\right), D:\min\left(0.50,\mu-2.75\sigma\right), D-:\min\left(0.45,\mu-3\sigma\right)\end{aligned}\end{align} \]