In order to be able to get the grade you want, you must attend every class. Therefore, I want you to attend every class, to arrive on time, and to sign the attendance sheet. Failure to arrive on time for, and to attend every class for its entire duration can hurt your grade substantially, even though indirectly. Every time you miss a class, you miss a lecture and/or other activities, such as discussions or demonstrations. Nevertheless, you are always responsible for all such material. Therefore, if you miss a class or part of a class it is your responsibility to get good notes from a fellow student, come to see me for help, or both. These measures, however, are usually not nearly as effective as attending the lectures yourself. Furthermore, you must always make up any missed material before the next class in case of an unannounced quiz.
Every time you miss a class, you could miss an unannounced quiz or being called on for oral quizzing (see below). Missing any quiz or exam results in a zero for that test. If the absence is excusable (see below), then a make up will be allowed, but it may not be exactly the same test as received by the other students. If the absence was not excusable, then the grade remains a zero, and this could substantially hurt your overall grade for the course.
In summary, if you miss classes, whether excused or not, you may not be able to get the grade you want. Having a legitimate excuse only makes it possible for you to receive a grade for a make up test, it doesn’t make up for the learning opportunity you missed.
It is the students' responsibility to provide themselves with the means to get to class. Therefore, students need to have some means of transportation that they can rely upon for whatever kind of weather can be expected. In the winter, one can expect snow. Some students may live in an area where they know that there could be snow that will not be plowed at the time they need to travel. If the University announces a delay or a shutdown due to weather that affects a class I teach, then I will not hold that class, and I will adjust the syllabus as needed. If the weather is inclement to some degree, but the University does not shut down or delay, then I will hold class. It is the students' responsibility to balance their need to get to class with their need to stay safe. In such situations, use your best judgment, and then follow the policies for attendance and what to do if you miss a class as detailed above and below.
If you miss a class, make sure you call me or drop by my office immediately to find out what you missed. See me the next day; don’t wait until the next class. If you missed a test, it is important to make it up immediately. For the benefit of the students who have taken the test when it was scheduled, I usually go over tests one or two classes after they are taken. Obviously, if you have missed a test and we are going over the answers before you have taken a make up, then in order for you to take a make up, some special arrangement will need to be made. If this occurs, then it is your responsibility to see me to make arrangements for making up the test.
If you know you must miss a class (for a reason for which you will later provide acceptable documentation), and you want to know in advance what you should read to keep up, or if you need to get any handouts, etc. from a classmate, then, by all means, call me. I’ll be glad to do what I can to help minimize (although I can’t eliminate) any detrimental effects of your missing class.
However, I prefer that you do not call me in advance if you are only calling to tell me you are missing a class, to apologize, and to ask to be excused. You only need to be excused if you need to make up a test. Furthermore, I can only excuse you after I have received your documentation (see below). You never need to apologize to me for missing a class. As long as your reason was legitimate, I'll be happy to help you in any way I can. However, you still need to be concerned about how it will affect your education (and your grade).
There is no point in calling me to try to find out if you can "afford" to skip a class even though you don’t have an acceptable excuse. I won’t know whether your name will come up for oral quizzing. I may not know at the time you call whether I plan to give an unannounced quiz. And if I did know, I could not tell you anyway. In my opinion, you can never "afford" to miss a class.
As should be clear from the section above on "If you miss a class", "excusing" you only means excusing you from missing a test so that you are allowed to make it up. It does not mean excusing you from understanding the material on which you will be graded. It is always your responsibility to make sure you understand the material.
Any time you miss a test you are given a grade of zero. To replace the zero with a grade, first, you should make up the test immediately (the next day). Secondly, however, in order to be allowed to have your grade count, you must provide written documentation that your absence was necessary. It must come either from a University official (e.g., coach, club advisor) saying you were participating in a University sponsored activity, or from a doctor, ordering hospitalization or bed rest because of a serious injury or illness, or from someone at the health or counseling center saying it was necessary for you to miss class. It is always your responsibility to bring the documentation to me.
Reasons such as a minor physical illness (e.g., sore throat, headache), minor emotional distress (e.g., family or relationship problems), minor injury (e.g., broken finger, sprained ankle), or minor personal emergency (e.g., car breakdown, flooded basement) will not be considered sufficient to excuse an absence without written verification of the seriousness of the problem (e.g., from a doctor or nurse for illness or injury, or family member or counselor for a family or personal emergency).
Please understand, the purpose of the documentation is not to please me. Rather, the reason is this: Conscientious students seldom miss class or need to make up tests, and only do so when truly necessary. Such students feel it is unfair for other students to be permitted to be any less conscientious. Therefore, they are willing to provide documentation of an acceptable reason to ask for special consideration (such as a make up test) because they would want the same thing expected of others. I am assuming that you are just such a conscientious student.
Your grade for most of my courses will come from a mid-term and final exam, oral quizzes, and several written quizzes (which may or may not be announced). For the details in regard to any particular course, (e.g., whether exams are cumulative, etc.) see the syllabus for that course. Quizzes are tests that have questions that are just as difficult as exam questions, just fewer of them. Exams and quizzes are all given a percentage grade, and then the grade is weighted according to the importance of the test and the number of items (see section on calculating grades, below). Grades come from these sources only. There is usually no extra credit on tests. Again, see the syllabus for the particular course.
I sometimes offer an opportunity to earn up to three extra percentage points on top of your regular course grade. Each extra credit point is earned by reading an article in a peer reviewed journal about a research study and writing a short report. There may also be opportunities to earn the extra credit points through actual research participation.
One purpose of the unannounced quizzes is to serve as additional encouragement for faithful attendance. Therefore, bear in mind that, as explained in the section on attendance, for unannounced quizzes, as for any other test, the grade from make ups only count when an absence has been documented as excusable.
Quizzes and exams may consist of any combination of objective (multiple choice; true/false) and subjective (short answer; essay) questions.
Oral Quizes: At some point during some classes, often at the beginning, I will announce that I am going to quiz you orally (see explanation below). Oral quiz grades will constitute part of your course grade. They can help or hurt you, depending on how well you are prepared.
The grade on any individual test will be shown as a percentage grade. It can be converted to a letter grade according to the following breakdown:
90% - 100% = A
80% - 89% = B
70% - 79% = C
60% - 69% = D
< 60 = F
At some points, especially at the beginning of classes, I will ask questions about the material we have been covering or that was assigned for you to read. This serves several purposes. It provides a chance to review, to get a feel for the types of questions you will be asked on exams, and to practice how to learn the material. You should always be ready to answer such questions when you come to class.
Students will be selected randomly to be quizzed orally. For some classes, the oral quizzing may be done for a grade. In others it may be done for its other benefits. If you are selected and you are not present, and if the quizzing is being graded, then you will receive a zero (see the sections on "If you miss a class", and "Excusable absences" above).
Everyone will be selected for oral quizzing eventually. I know that no one likes to be evaluated in front of other people. You should make every effort to make the experience as painless as possible by always being prepared. Furthermore, even if you are not prepared (which is embarrassing in itself), I will make every effort to alleviate the embarrassment by helping you with some hints, asking your classmates to help you, etc. Regardless of whether you are able to give a good answer or not, we will use the oral quiz as an opportunity to talk about the material and help you learn it better. The purpose will always be to make the experience a positive one, never to unnecessarilly embarrass you. However, if the quizzing is being graded, then the grade will depend on how well you answer the question, and it will count toward your final course grade.
Your grade for the course is a weighted average of the various test grades that you will receive. Each weight will be some percentage of the total grade. Therefore, the weights always have to add to 100%.
For example the weights might be:
|
Quiz1 |
Quiz2 |
Midterm |
Quiz3 |
Quiz4 |
Quiz5 |
Final |
Oral |
|
10% |
10% |
20% |
10% |
10% |
10% |
25% |
5% |
Then your final course grade would be calculated as:
.10*Q1 + .10*Q2 + .20*Mid + .10*Q3 + .10*Q4 + .10*Q5 + .25*Fin + .05*Oral = Final course grade.
Suppose that, just before the final exam, you wanted to know what you needed to get to have a "B" for the course. You could use the formula above. Just substitute "X" in place of "Fin", substitute .80 (the minimum grade for a "B") for "Final course grade" and then solve the equation for "X".
Before all of the course grades are in, you can use the weights above in the following ways:
Suppose we have taken Quiz1, Quiz2, and the Midterm, and you want to know how to calculate your "current" grade (your grade up to that point). First, you adjust the weights like this: The first quiz was worth 10%, the second quiz was worth 10%, and the Midterm was worth 20%, so you have 40% of the grades so far. Adjust the weights for the first two quizzes like this: Ten percent is what percent of forty percent? (.10/.40 equals .25). So the new weights for the first two quizzes are each .25. Similarly, for the midterm, twenty percent is what percent of forty percent? (.20/.40) equals .50). So the new weight for the midterm is .50. Notice that .25 + .25 + .50 adds up to 100%. Now you can use this formula to calculate your current grade:
.25*Q1 + .25*Q2 + .50*Mid = current grade.
Now suppose your current grade turns out to be 78% ( a high "C"), and you want to know how well you would have to do on the next quiz to pull your grade up to a "B" (that is, a minimum of 80%). Again, first you must adjust the weights. Once the next quiz is taken, 50% of the grade will be in. The grades you have so far were worth 40% (10% for the first quiz, plus 10% for the second quiz, plus 20% for the Midterm). So forty percent is what percent of fifty percent? (.40/.50 equals .80). So your current grade of 78% is 80% of the grade you will have after the next quiz, and the next quiz is the other 20%. (80% + 20% = 100%) So you can use this formula to find out what you would need to get on the next quiz to pull your grade up to a "B".
.80*.78 + .20 x = .80
.624 + .20 x = .80
.20 x = .80 - .624
.20 x = .176
x = .176 / .20
x = .88
You need an 88% on the next quiz to pull the 78% up to an 80%. Notice that even though you were only 2 points below 80%, you needed to get a grade 8 points above 80% to pull your current grade up to an 80%. The reason is because the new quiz was only a small part of your grade compared to how much of the grade was already accounted for.
Lecture topics and reading assignments:
The syllabus will provide a list of lecture topics and the reading assignments associated with them. You must read the assignment associated with each topic before the day of the lecture. Oral quizzing will be on that topic and may be before the lecture. You are held responsible for all of the material in the reading assignments and the lectures. They will overlap to some degree, but there will be some material in each that is not in the other.
Finally, to be sure to get the grade you want in the course, see the study tips I provide.