Student’s ongoing standing and keeping up with the course 9/21/06

How to determine your letter grade of a Test First determine the letter-grade(s) you have made in two ways.

· Letter grade1: Determine your letter grade based on the % score you have made using following %score cutoffs:

o % score cutoffs for D, C, B, A are: 40, 55, 75, 90 respectively.

· Letter grade2: Determine your letter grade based on your scaled-score (grading by curve). Scaled scores are defined as follows.

o SC=(RS-AVG)*100/STD + 500

· RS=AVG, SC=500

· RS=AVG+STD, SC=600

· RS=AVG-STD, SC=400

o Our scaled score cutoffs for D, C, B, A are: 400, 450, 525, 600 respectively.

The letter grade you have made is the better of the letter-grade1 and letter-grade2, i.e. if there is a difference.

Student’s ongoing standing:

1) Go to “Semester Grade” in your TT-account. Lookup overall semester % score.

2) Based on the % cutoffs given above, determine the corresponding letter grade for your overall semester % score.

This is the ongoing grade you have made so far for the course. It is a conservative estimate since drops have not been included (it is prudent to assume that drops are to be used later on during the semester) and Test-scores have not been curved. A student should use

§ this ongoing grade

§ together with the letter grade of each Test

to gauge his/her ongoing standing in this course.

If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss with your TA or myself.

Keep up with the class:

• Do your best to keep up with the lecture and the reading of the text book.

o Do practice problems: from text book examples and exercise problems, and relevant questions in the iq-library.

o Do homework problems. Use the course summary sheet as your main guide.

• Look for ways to improve your study habit.

• Read: Developing your problem solving skills. (see Instructor's General Comments.) Pay special attention on the paragraph on using the course summary sheet as your study companion.
• Read Post-test self-evaluation. (see Instructor's General Comments.). Understand the essential steps involved in doing a self-evaluation.

• Do a post-test self-evaluation for the Test you have just taken.
• Please see me. Bring your self-evaluation work with you when you come.

• Discuss your situation with me and/or the TA.

How to contact me?

· Office hours: W1-2, F4-5.

• Instructor’s weekly informal session: Th 4-5, Wel 2.312.

You may see me at other time by appointment. Send me an email, Remember to include “Physics 303K” on the subject line. Tell me several afternoon time-slots, when you can see me.