Points UP

Your final exam score is up.

All pointage (regular and bonus) is now tallied up in the Semester total points row on your My Grades page.

Semester total points UP

Your semester total points, bonus and regular, are now viewable in Webcourses, on your My Grades page, in the row labeled "SEMESTER TOTAL."

Based on this total, you can look up your semester grade in the "Basic structure of PSC1121-AW59" page, linked to our home page.

Exam 3 scores are up.

Your Exam 3 score is now released.

I will be working on grades etc. for the next day or so. Being as how that is the case, do not be surprised or worried if rows appear and disappear in your My Grades page. It is a sign of me working and organizing in the gradebook.

Ten

Since I have not had time to write up an iTunes U "pop" test, I am giving everyone a 10/10 on that test. Next test is our last test, tomorrow, Exam 3, 50 points.

Also: I have updated the "Regular points subtotal for semester" row. Your subtotal is now out of a possible 150 points: 2 regular exams, reading exam, iTunes U exam, 14 mq participation for a total of 150 points possible.

So divide your regular points subtotal by 150 and look up the percentage on the grades table in &Quot;Basic structure" in the home page.

Any bonus points go on top of the regular points but I normally do not add them til the last exam is finished, but you can sure add them in, yourself.

Semester subtotal

I just updated the semester subtotal row in your My Grades page. It is up to date as of about 8 PM today.

Webcourses weirdness

For some reason your My Grades page was messing up the semester regular points subtotal. It is fixed now, but it will not update automatically. I have to do it manually, once per day. :\

Semester subtotals; Exam 2 score released

I have just released your score on Exam 2.

In addition, I activated two new rows in the My Grades page:

1. "Regular semester points subtotal" and
2. "Bonus points subtotal"

These two rows will help you see approximately where you are, grade-wise, going into the end of the semester. For the precise point totals for each semester letter grade, refer to the Basic structure of PSC1121-AW59 page linked in our home page.

Remember: we still have another 50 points coming in Exam 3, plus a slough of mq participation points in the next two weeks.

Semester pointage is UP.

You can take a look at the "Total semester points" row of your My Grades page in Webcourses. It now includes all the exam points, including yesterday's final exam, plus all the bonus points you may have earned.

Side note on bonus points:

1. The Ch. 24 bonus came about through the average score of your Ch. 24 mini-quiz attempts.
   1. One bonus point if your avg. was 6.50 or higher;
   2. Two bonus points if your avg. was larger than 12.50
2. There are some bonus points embedded in your final exam score, which is why Webcourses considers it an 88 point exam. To see if you earned the bonus points here, just select the final exam's "View Submission" method from the Assessments page and view your attempt -- specifically, items 69-72. These bonus points are embedded in your final exam score and come into the "Total semester points" through the "Exams subtotal" row.

Later this week, after giving final exams to my lecture sections, I will start posting your semester grades. But for right now you can get a good idea from your "Total semester points" figure.

About the final

I will be working on grades today, this morning for a bit and then this afternoon a bit more. So do not be surprised to see rows vanish and reappear on your My Grades page in Webcourses! It's just me mucking about with the grade book.

I decided to keep things simple and embedd the bonus activity X in the actual final exam. It is still officially a 50 point exam, but now you can score over 100%, up to 54 points on it. SWEEEET.

However, the bonus activity X being embedded in the final exam does not change the semester baseline total: that's still 200 points. So I add up all your exam points and bonus points (if any) and then look up your grade on the points table:

A	185 points
A-	180 points
etc.

I hope to have semester grades computed by supper time.

Whewwww! What a test! New subtotal.

OK, Exam 3 is now on the books, and you can look at your score in My Grades.

Also, I just activated the "Exams subtotal" row in My Grades, which will eventually have 200 points' worth of testing in it two weeks from now. But right now, it has 110 points (or fewer) from the first three exams. You can estimate your semester grade -- if I were to give smester grades this afternoon -- by dividing your subtotal by 110 and then looking it up in the percentage column of the "Exams, grades" PDF on the home page.

Best two midterms are UP.

I just activated the row in your My Grades page that calculates the sum of the top two midterm exam scores. This sum goes into your semester grade.

Grading

I am double checking your guys' points etc. before I post the semester grades. I have not forgotten you. Lots of data to double check, for you guys and for the lecture sections.

Total semester points now up to date.

The "Total semester points" row in your My Grades page is now up to date: best two of three midterms + writing points plus whatever bonus points you have. That is 80 + 20 regular points possible plus whatever bonus points you have snagged. Almost everybody has at least a bonus point or so.

So... we have 100 regular points on the books. This means your total semester points today gives you the percentage level of your semester work as you go into the final. The semester grades will not be final until we actually take the final exam, but going into the final here is how your grades work out:

1. If you have 90 or more points, you are carrying an A average into the final.
2. If you have 75 points or more, that is a B average, going into the final.
3. 60 points or more, and you have a C average going into the final exam.
4. A passing grade, D average, going into the final is 50 points or more.
5. Fewer than 50 points now means you have a failing grade going into the final.

Don't get too confident or lackadaisical -- that final exam is 80 big points and it's going to be rugged, if for no other reason than it being cumulative, every topic since September.

So continue to bear down and study like crazy. Finish strong, and take home your absolute best performance.

90%

I see that 90 percent of you have taken all three midterms. Excellent. This means that you will have the luxury of dropping the lowest midterm exam score of the three and keeping the best two scores.

Exam 3 scores UP.

I just released your scores for Exam 3.

I will be working on the grades for a while, setting up the best two of three midterm exams and "dropping" the lowest of the three. So don't be surprised if grades disappear for a few minutes and then re-appear. THis is how it looks when I am uploading and downloading Excel files of grades etc. Don't worry.

Grades are IN at the registrar's office.

Your semester letter grades are IN, now. The registrar has them -- hopefully those goombahs at the registrar's office will get the grades online for you sometime today.

One more thing: it is unethical and sometimes an act of harrassment to ask me for extra points at this part of the semester to improve your grade. Most of you have the sense to avoid doing this, but I want to make it clear to EVERYBODY. I do not look on it kindly.

Good

I am proud of youse guys for working the Discussion areas so hard this week.

I always tell my TAs that the more interactions a student can have with me, with the TAs, with classmates, with textbook, with Webcourses etc., the easier it will be for them to learn and snag a good grade for the semester.

Slowness on the my.ucf.edu channel

There appears to be a teeny bit of slowness on the my.ucf.edu channel, for the updating of grades. I can see all your semester grades, but apparently you guys cannot.

The registrar's office says the updating of grade rosters for students is still cruising along, and will finish up soon, so we will be polite and not get too fussy about it. :)

Exam scores UP; semester points update

Your "Semester points" row is now updated with yesterday's Exam 3 score. Good.

We still have 100 points to earn: Writing Assignment 2 and the final exam will complete the pointage in the next two weeks.

1. Writing Assignment 2, 20 points, due next Thursday
2. Final exam, 10 AM - 9:50 PM, May 2.

So the baseline for calculating a percentage is only 140 points right now. Get today's "Semester points" number, divide it by 140, and that will be your semester percentage as of today.

Also: be alert to extra credit opportunities which I occasionally activate in last week of semester. One is running already:"Bonus: suggest question for the final exam," in Discussions.

Equivalent grades as of March 30th

I just computed March 30 equivalent grades for everybody, in points (out of 90) and in percentage. If we suddenly concluded the semester today, these would be your grade numbers.

Here are the three subcalculations:

1. I added up your two exam scores.
2. I added up your two writing assignment scores.
3. I also added in the few bonus points you might have earned. Not many of you have earned any, though.

If you have more than 45 points, your grade, if I wrote it today, would be passing.

If you have 81 points or more, that'd be 90% of 90 points, so you'd get an A -- if I wrote grades today.

If your pointage is between 45 and 81 today, then take a look at the percentage values on the "Grades and points for spring 2009," page, (click the roving eye icon in Webcourses) and they will give you an idea of where your grade lies right now.

All of your numbers will change before the end of the semester, because

1. we have one more midterm exam, April 16th
2. a small writing assignment to be announced soon and
3. the final exam, May 2, which is cumulative and mandatory for everybody.

This can drastically change your semester pointage up or down. So do not let me catch you napping.