There are no assignments for extra credit and there are no make up exams, quizzes or assignments. All parts of the course have at least one optional grade that you can miss for your emergencies.

Letter Grade Assignment

Please notice that letter grades are assigned in a competitive basis. Often students work very hard and do not manage to get an A. Unless you have reasons for taking this class in a letter grade basis, consider a P/NP grading instead. Only the top 20% overall scores are entitled to a letter grade A- or better.

There are no letter grades per exam. All the scores are added with the specified weight and sorted in decreasing order. The first 20% get an A's, the next half of the class may get B's and all the remaining others, as long as they meet the passing requirements, get C's.

Note that D is not passing, for those who take the course on a P/NP basis.

Attendance:

Class Attendance: if you are present to 80% of the classes or more, you are entitled to drop one (the lowest) scored out of the three written exams (this includes the final exam).

Lab Attendance: You cannot have more than 4 absences to labs. You will NOT pass the class if you do.

Passing requirements

In order to pass the class you need to:

have an overall score over 50%
have average written-exams score (midterms and final) over 50%
have no more than 4 absences in labs
Class attendance - read note on written exams

Overall score

Labs: 30% (you can miss at most 4 labs) - 2 labs are optional
Homework: 15% - There are 4 homework quizzes, 1 is optional
Term paper: 10%
Exams (2 midterms and 1 final exam): 45% - 1 exam is optional
In order to be exempt from the final you need:
- 80% attendance to classes (not the lab)
- average equal to or greater than 50 on the midterms
- sign a request during the class immediately following the second midterm exam.

Notes:

Homework quizzes:

There will be at least 4 homework quizzes during the course. Those quizzes are online and can be taken from any computer connected to the internet. Questions in these quizzes are expected to prepare you for the written exams in class.

The homework quizzes can only be taken within specific dates. Check the class syllabus for the precise date. This means you cannot take the quiz too early and you cannot take it too late. Don't leave it for the last day. If the computer or communication has a problem, you may lose the quiz.

You are allowed to retake a homework quiz if you are not satisfied with your score. However, a penalty of 5 points is imposed each time you re-take a quiz. If you start taking a quiz and get disconnected, the computer will consider that you are taking the quiz a second time. So, please, use safe connections and finish your quizzes.

The lowest grade in the homework quiz will be dropped and your final homework grade will be the average of your grades in the remaining quizzes.

Note: The above applies to homework quizzes. Rules for Preparation and Lab quizzes are different and are described below.

Written Exams

There will be three written exams: two midterms and one final exam.

All written exams are multiple choice and require a "parscore" scantron sheet. Make sure you have the correct scantron form.

No one is admitted to the exam after 20 minutes. Please show up in time. No excuses are acceptable.

Each exam consists of, approximately 60 questions. You may expect 45 questions to be from the textbook and the other 15 from class material and discussions.

Your homework quizzes are intended to prepare you for the exam.

If you think you may need to go to the bathroom, do that before the exam. No one is allowed to leave and reenter the exam room.

There is no make up exam for whatever reason. However, your written exam grade will be the average of the two highest written exam scores. Therefore if you need to leave school earlier, do well in the midterms so that you don't need to show up for the final.

Notice however, that in order to skip the final you also need to have 80% attendance to classes and sign a request as noted above.

Notice that there is a different kind of quiz taken during the lab sections. Quizzes taken during the labs cannot be retaken!

Lab Evaluation

1/4 attendance
1/4 preparation quiz (online)
1/4 assignment work
1/4 lab work quiz (online)

Notes:

Attendance: In order to get attendance credit, you need to login and sign in for that lab section. Just logging in is not enough to give you attendance credit. Login lets the computer know who you are but signing in requests the computer to record an attendance grade for you. The attendance will account for 25% of your lab grade.

You can login any time from any computer connected to the internet, but you can only sign in for a lab while the lab is in session. Also, you can only sign in from a computer in the lab.

Preparation Quiz: Each lab has a specific purpose and you should read the lab description before you come to the lab. When the lab session starts, you can sign in to the session and take the preparation quiz. The preparation quiz must be taken and finished within 15 minutes after the lab started. This quiz will account for 25% of your lab score.

Assignment: Each lab also has a specific assignment for you. You are supposed to work on this assignment during the lab section. The lab supervisors will evaluate your work during the lab. You may be required to show or print your work and turn it in. This will account for 25% of your lab score. The lab assignment has to be turned in at the end of the lab session. You cannot bring it next week. NO exceptions.

Lab Quiz - Online questions: Each lab also has a set of questions related to the work done during that lab section. Those questions are to be answered online in the computer. You need to answer those questions before the lab section ends; also, you cannot start taking this quiz before 30 minutes have passed since the lab started. This quiz will account for 25% of your lab score.

Grading: The two lowest grades obtained in labs will be dropped. Your final lab grade is the average of your remaining lab grades.

Term Paper

The term paper may be on any subject of your choosing. You will be graded on your use of the skills acquired in this class, including:

appropriate use of fonts
automatically generated table of contents
footnotes
spell-checking
web-based research
pasted graphics
overall format

You are advised to consult the lab manual on how the term paper is graded. It is easy to lose a lot of points by not following directions.

Check your grades

All students are responsible for checking their grades online, and for promptly requesting corrections. Any grade that is on the system for two weeks will be presumed valid and verified.