Midterm Exam 3 Results and Grading Information

• Exam Statistics: The median score was 70 and the average was 69. This is similar to the statistics on the earlier midterms.
• Exam Solutions and Comments. Complete solutions, with comments on common mistakes. Check here first before asking questions about the grading.
• Grading appeals. In case of a simple accounting error (e.g., incorrect addition of points, scores, a missing hw score, or a discrepancy between your score on the exam and the score on the computer grade report), let me know, and I'll likely take care of it on the spot. If you have a question about the grading itself, I'd be happy to take a look. Most errors were not unique and were graded uniformly; see the exam solutions for notes on some common mistakes. The deadline for grading appeals for Exam 3 is Friday, Nov. 19.
• Online Scores and Prefinal Grade: To view all scores you have earned to date, go to this URL (also linked from the Course Webpage):
  https://www-s.math.uiuc.edu/bluestem/grades.cgi
  The grade shown at the end of the score display represents your approximate current grade, based on 3 Midterm Exams, 9 HW Assignments, and a maximal score of 435 points. This is the grade you would receive if the semester were to end now. The Final Exam accounts for an additional 200 points, and your performance on the Final, relative to the rest of the class, may affect your course grade upwards or downwards, though changes by more than a half letter grade are rare (though not impossible).
  Note: If you were granted an excused score for an assignment or exam, the letter grade correspondence may be a bit off since it is based on a total score of 435 points. Once the Final exam scores are in, this will be corrected by appropriately rescaling the scores.
• Remaining HW assignment and drop score: There will be one more homework assignment, HW 10, due Friday, 12/3. Once this assignment has been graded, the lowest hw score will be dropped, so that only the 9 highest hw scores count. Thus, the final assignment will not change the maximal points total (435), and if you received the maximal score on all earlier hw assignments, it will not make a difference in your total. However, if you missed an assignment, or did poorly on one, turning in the final assignment may noticeably increase your total.

Final Exam Information

• Room/Date/Time: The final exam will be on Friday, Dec. 17, 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm, in 161 Noyes (NOTE ROOM). This is the University assigned Final Exam slot for classes meeting 2-3 MWF. As mentioned at the beginning of the semester, the University is very strict in enforcing its Final Exam dates. In particular, you cannot take the Final at a different date/time to accommodate travel plans.
• Final Exam Conflict Policy: The University has specific rules on prioritizing conflicts resulting from three consecutive finals. Since our final is on the last slot of the final exam period, this situation can only arise if you have finals on both Friday, Dec. 17, 8 am - 11 am, and Thursday, Dec. 16, 7 pm - 10 pm. In that case, you are entitled to a conflict exam in one of the three classes involved, though most likely not in ours, because of University rules about prioritizing conflicts. The complete rules can be found in Article 3, Part 2 of the Student Code, but they essentially boil down to the following:
  1. If one of the classes involved in the conflict has a scheduled conflict exam (ours does not), you should take that exam.
  2. If one of the classes involved is giving the final exam at a time different from their designated final exam slot, that class has to accommodate any conflict requests.
  3. If one of the finals involved is a "combined" final exam (ours is a "noncombined" exam), that class has to provide conflict exams.
  If none of the above cases applies, then the class with the largest number of students is responsible for providing a makeup exam, and you should contact the instructor of that course. The enrollment for our class is less than 35 If none of other two courses involved in the``three consecutive finals'' situation has more than 35 students, then you may be entitled to a makeup final for this class. In this case, you should contact me by email (ajh@illinois.edu) no later than the last day of class, Wednesday, Dec. 8, providing details about the three classes (course/section numbers, final exam times, and any conflict exams offered).
• Final Exam content and syllabus: The Final will be about 2 - 2.5 times as long as a midterm and will be worth 200 points. The Final will have 10 - 15 problems, generally with several parts, and comparable in format, level, and difficulty to the problems on the midterms. The Final Exam will be cumulative and cover the material of Midterm Exams 1 - 3, each given approximately equal weight, as well as the material covered after the third midterm (which will include most of Chapter 9 and possibly Section 3.2 and/or parts of Chapter 10). A more detailed syllabus will be posted after Thanksgiving Break.

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