PHY 2130 Grading Information

Reading Quizzes (15%):

It is important for you to come to class prepared, i.e. be familiar with the material to be presented. To test your preparedness, a simple five-minute quiz, testing your qualitative familiarity with the material to be discussed in class, will be given at the beginning of each class. No make-up reading quizzes will be given.

BONUS POINTS: There are 13 lectures with reading after the first class. Turning in a typed one or two page summary of the reading will be worth 0.5 point, and a good one will be worth 1.5 points. Additionally, 0.5 points will be awarded for the consistency at the end of the semester. Reading summaries are due at the start of each lecture. Late reading summaries will not be accepted. Summaries longer than 2 pages are strongly discouraged and will be automatically given lowest possible amount of points. These points are not simply additions to the total, but reduce the weight of the other requirements. For example if 20 points were earned in Reading Summaries then the contributions would be Reading Summaries 20%, Reading Quizzes 12%, Quiz Section performance 12%, Best and Second Best Hour Exams 16% each, and Final 24%, Bonus Online Homework: 5%.

Homework and QUIZ Sessions (15%):

The quiz sessions meet once a week. They are an essential part of the course. They allow meeting together in small groups to ask questions, discuss lecture material, discuss assigned problems, etc. The assigned homework problems are intended to test your understanding of course material. In the same way you must practice to become proficient at a sport or musical instrument, you must work problems in order to master basic physics. It is very important that you work out the solutions to each problem, and understand clearly the correct method of solution. Homework problems will not be graded (except for the on-line ones), but they will be similar to those you might expect during examinations. It will be difficult to obtain a good grade in this course without making a conscientious effort to do all of the homework assignments. In order to assess your performance, quizzes will be given to you by your quiz instructor. Make-up in-class quizzes can be given at the discretion of your quiz instructor.

BONUS POINTS (Online homework):  The WebAssign online testing system (http://webassign.net) provides online homework submission and grading. You will be asked to solve and submit for grading one additional problem each week for a maximum bonus 5% of your final score. In order to use this system, a $6.00 access card must be purchased at the campus bookstore (Barnes and Noble). Please consult your WebAssign Student Guide for additional information.

Hour Exams (20% each) and Final Exam (30%):

There will be THREE (3) Hour Exams and one Final Exam. There is no penalty for missing just one of the three Hour Exams, as only scores form your best two exams will be used in determining your final score (20% each). If you miss an additional exam, a zero will be used for that missed second exam in determining your total score. For a true emergency, a student may be allowed to take a make-up Final Exam. However, you must obtain permission to do so from the lecturer prior to or (at the latest) on the day of the Final. The Final Exam is worth 30% of your final score.