Grading

Grading • Grading Scale

Grading

It is important for you to work on the material as we discuss it in class. Keep up with the readings, attend lectures and labs, post to the online discussion board, and do the homework and the projects! If you do these things, your grade will take care of itself, and you will enjoy the class, too.

Note

You are not in competition with other students in the class for your grade. We do not grade on a curve.

Grading for Labs and Projects with Associated WebQs

Many of the labs and projects have accompanying Catalyst WebQ quizzes. For those assignments, your grade will be divided between the score you receive on the quiz and the points the TA awards for your work on the lab or project. To do well on the assignment, you must do well on both the hands-on work and answering the questions.

Participation

Your participation score comes from participation in your Lab section, Lecture, and on the GoPost online discussion board. Your TA will give you your Lab participation score. It is based on how much you asked questions and answered other students' questions. The instructor will give you your Lecture participation score. Your TA will assign your GoPost participation score based on how often you ask or answer questions outside the Weekly Discussion area.

At the end of the quarter, students will vote for the best GoPosters—

Extra credit points will be awarded to the First (40 points), Second (25 points), Third (15 points), Fourth (10 points), and Fifth (5 points) place winners in each category.

General grading information for the University of Washington is available here.

1-1-1-1 Rule for Project Parts

You may turn in one part of one project one day late one time during the quarter without penalty. No other late projects will be accepted. Always turn in what you have completed, partial or otherwise. Some credit is better than nonet!

Grading Policy

Grades will follow the University of Washington Undergraduate Grading policy.

Late/Missed Policy

Late homework, labs, QuickClicks, and GoPosts are not accepted and receive a score of zero. Late projects will receive a score of zero with one exception: the 1-1-1-1 Rule (see sidebar).

This class moves fast. It's better to just move on then to be constantly trying to catch up. In life, sometimes things happen. They might take the form of a medical or family emergency or simply staying up all night for a paper due the same day as an assignment for this class.

To compensate for not accepting work late, at the end of the quarter before we calculate grades, we drop your lowest scores in each of these categories:

Grading Pie Chart

The breakdown of your grade for this class is shown in the table and the pie chart.

Percentage
 Deliverable Total Dropped Net
Points Each
Total Points
45%
Projects (2 parts each)
 3 0
3
150 points
450 points
10%
Pop Quizzes
7 2
5
20 points
100 points
18%
Labs
 11 2
9
20 points
180 points
9%
GoPosts
 8 2
6
15 points
90 points
12%
Clicker Quizzes
 30 6
24
5 points
120 points
6%
Participation
 n/a n/a
n/a
n/a
60 points
100%
Total possible for class—
1000 points

Evaluation of Student Work

You may expect to receive comments on and evaluations of assignments and submitted work in a timely fashion. All work from the course will be returned, with comments, within two weeks of the last class of the quarter.

Your written work will be graded based on its clarity, organization, balance, amount of pertinent detail included, depth and clarity of evaluative and analytical comments, and preparation. It will also be graded on the extent to which a good understanding of the material presented in the course is shown and on the extent to which directions are followed. If evaluative or analytical comments are required, they should be supported by factual evidence, either from readings or other documents. Other aspects of individual assignments may also be included in the grading.

Written work that shows a lack of understanding of subject matter, is unclear or poorly organized, contains few or irrelevant details, does not follow directions, contains little or unsubstantiated evaluative commentary, or is poorly written, prepared (e.g. typos, grammatical errors), or documented will receive low grades.

Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments to the English Department Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively. Information on scheduling an appointment can be found here.

Scores in MyUW Gradebook

Your scores on the various graded tasks in the class will be available over the web through MyUW. Use your UWNetID and UW password for access. See menu for link to Catalyst Tools. Filter by Participant and Gradebook.

Questions about Grades

If you believe that we made a mistake in grading a quiz, lab, or project, please do the following:

  1. Write an email to your TA (cc to the professor) describing what you think is the problem.
  2. Read the TA's response carefully. If you still think there is a problem, reply to the email and tell the TA you would like to discuss it.
  3. Have a discussion with the TA.
  4. If you disagree with the outcome of that discussion, tell the TA and then set up a meeting with the professor.
  5. Discuss it with the professor. Presumably we can come to a resolution at that time.

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Grading Scale

Worth Repeating

You are not in competition with other students in the class for your grade. We do not grade on a curve.

Your grade is calculated by taking the number of points you earn, dividing by the total possible points to get the percent correct, then multiplying the percentage by 4. The resulting decimal grade between 0 and 4.0 is your grade.

Use the conversion table to convert your grade for the class to a letter grade.

Grade (4-pt Scale)
Letter Grade

3.81–4.00

A

3.60–3.80

A-

3.47–3.59

B+

3.33–3.46

B

3.20–3.32

B-

3.06–3.19

C+

2.93–3.05

C

2.80–2.92

C-

2.66–2.79

D+

2.53–2.65

D

2.40–2.52

D-

2.39 or less

E

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Last updated: Sunday, 29-Nov-2009 20:30:37 PST
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