Grading

Grading

Your grade will be computed according to the following scheme: 

Exams will be curved but problems sets will not. In assigning the final letter grade, in addition to considering your numerical scores from each graded component of the course, I will adhere to the following guidelines:

Grades at Wellesley College are described in the Articles of Government as follows:

(a) Grade A is given to students who meet with conspicuous excellence every demand which can fairly be made by the course.

(b) Grade B is given to those students who add to the minimum of satisfactory attainment excellence in not all, but some of the following: organization, accuracy, originality, understanding, insight.

(c) Grade C is given to those students who have attained a satisfactory familiarity with the content of a course and who have demonstrated ability to use this knowledge in a satisfactory manner.

(d) Grade D is a passing grade.

(e) Grade F denotes failure and loss of credit for the course.

Below are more details about each component of the grade:

Problem sets

The homework can be found on the assignments page.  You are responsible for doing the exercises as the material is covered in class. Problems sets will usually be due on Fridays by 5 pm and will cover roughly the material we talk about in class the previous week. 

It is very important that you keep up with the assigned work since the exams will be based on homework problems. Each homework assignment will contain some problems of the sort you have not seen before (i.e. of the sort not done in class or worked out in the textbook). The reason for this is that the best measure of a good grasp of new material is an ability to apply it in new situations, and problems that look unfamiliar at first glance are meant to test this.

Lowest homework grade will be dropped.

An important note about homework collaboration and the Honor Code:  You are welcome to work with your classmates or our teaching assistant when solving homework problems. In the event that you have taken notes while working with someone else, you must put these notes away and recreate the solutions on your own as you write them up for submission.  Using notes from a collaboration while writing up your homework assignment will be considered a violation of the Honor Code. In addition, you may NOT consult a written solution to a problem you are working on (whether it be online or in a book). Breaches in the Honor Code in any aspect of the course will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the college legislation. If you have any questions about this policy, please talk to me.

Quizzes

Two 20-minute quizzes will be given in the week before each midterm exam.  The dates of the quizzes can be found on the quizzes and exams page.

The quizzes will contain 3-4 problems that will be much like the ones you will encounter on the midterms and the final. Each problem will count as much as a homework problem (and will thus not account for a very big part of your final grade).  More details about the quizzes will be given later.

Midterm exams

There will be two in-class midterms. The dates can be found on the Quizzes and Exams page. More details about the midterms will be given later.

Final exam

The final will be self-scheduled. More details will be given later.