Math 453 Grading Information

• Course Information Sheet. The first-day handout. General course information and grading policies.
• Online Scores. Click here to view all your scores in this class, and your current average and current letter grade. The grade shown is the grade you would earn if the semester were to end now; it takes into account all grade components earned so far with the appropriate weighting, the hw drop score, and the curving. Only the final exam score and one additional hw score are missing. See below for a detailed explanation of the score display; read this first before asking questions about the display.
• Overall average. In addition to the individual scores on each assignment or exam, the score display now shows your current average and your current grade. The average is expressed as a percentage of the maximal possible average and is obtained by averaging the different grade components with the appropriate weights (1/6 hw, 1/2 midterm exams, and 1/3 final).
• Drop score. In computing the hw average, the lowest among the hw scores is ignored, and the average is taken over the remaining hw scores, The dropped score is indicated by a double asterisk (**); you can verify that it is indeed the lowest score. (A single asterisk (*) denotes an excused score; a double dash (--) indicates a missed assignment (which counts as a score of 0).)
• Current grade and curving. The overall average is curved and converted to a letter grade. The curve will be adjusted after each major test. The current curve uses cutoffs of 86/100 for the A range, 72/100 for the B range, etc. The cutoffs for in-between grades (A+, A, A-, B+, etc.) are computer-generated by interpolation. The precise cutoffs are rather meaningless at this point, since they are not final and may be adjusted slightly after the final exam scores are in, taking into account the score distribution at that point. Note that the curving is being performed on the overall average; there is no separate curving on individual grade components.
• Discrepancies in score display. If you notice errors in the score display, such as an incorrectly entered or missing hw score, let me know right away and show me the assignment in question. The deadline for reporting errors is April 22.

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