Assessments

There will be three kinds of assessments for this course.

• Quizzes. There will be 8 quizzes throughout the term, worth altogether 15% of your total mark. The quiz with the lowest grade will be dropped (that is, only 7 quizzes will effectively count towards your total quiz grade). There will be no make-up quizzes. Missed quizzes for which you received accommodation will be given a grade which is the average mark of all the quizzes you wrote. Note also that quizzes are section-specific, whereas the rest of the assessments are common to all sections. Furthermore, resulting marks may be adjusted at the end of the term, to ensure uniformity among sections.
• Midterm Examination. This will be a 2-hour written exam, worth 35% of your total mark. The midterm will be on Friday, Oct 26, 7-9pm.
• Final Examination. This will be a 3-hour written exam, worth 50% of your total mark. Time, date and place will be scheduled by the Registrar's office at a later date.

Here are some further details about quizzes. All quizzes will take place at the beginning of class and will be 20-minute long. Every quiz will be based on the material covered after the previous quiz (or, for the first quiz, since the first class). You will not be allowed to use your notes, the textbook or other aids (including technological ones) during quizzes. In particular, you will not be allowed to use a calculator. As a unique exception to these rules, the first quiz will be an open-book one. This will help in taking off some pressure from this first assessment, allowing you to focus on familiarizing with the quizzes' format and timing.

Quizzes might have a different number of exercises but will always contain the following three kinds of questions.

1. Multiple-choice question. In this kind of question, you have to choose the right answer among a few different given options. Only one option is the right one.
2. True-false question. In this kind of question, you will be asked to judge whether a given statement is true or false. No justification will be required.
3. Open question, usually asking you to perform some computations. These exercises will be similar (but not identical) to the suggested exercises in your book. (Check the list of suggested exercises in the "Exercises & Other Resources" page.) In order to get full marks on these exercises, you will have to show all of your work, which means your written work should contain all the details needed to understand your solution, without anything left to reader to figure out or guess (markers should not have to read between the lines of your work!) In particular, you should show all steps of the computations you perform and make it clear what your final answer is. Also, please, write legibly!

Quiz dates: Sep 19, Sep 26, Oct 3, Oct 17, Nov 7, Nov 14, Nov 21, Nov 28.

The use of calculators and other electronic devices will not be permitted for the midterm test and the final examination.