Grading Policy

Split of course total

Exams and homeworks will be weighted by the following percentages:

New Deal Rule

If midterm 2 (M2) and midterm 3 (M3) are much better than midterm 1 (M1), say
M1 < 0.8 *(M2+M3)/2,
then I'll drop the first midterm score and replace it by 0.8*(M2+M3)/2.

Same rule for M2 and M3.

Cutoffs

There will be straight cutoffs for letter grades:

If you participate in all exams and the quiz, and don't miss more than 2 homeworks you'll get no worse than "C".

Half Grades:

There will be half grades wthin 2pts of the cutoff. For example: 98-100 A+, 94-98 A, 92-94 A-.

Late homework

The lowest homework score will be dropped. Missing homeworks count as 0pts. Late homeworks will not be accepted (because solutions are posted on WWW). No exceptions from this rule. You can always submit before the due date of homework assignments.

Grade appeals

For exams: write a short note of your concern, and hand it to me together with your exam. If you find someone with more points for the same answer, show me both exams. I will not downgrade the other exam.

For homeworks: Each homework problem will be graded as 3 pts if it is completely correct, 2pts if almost correct, 1pts if there is something - even if it's completely wrong, 0pts if the problem is missing. I will consider grade revisions on homeworks only within a week after returning the homework (except of course outright grading mistakes like wrong addition of points etc.)

pm@stat.duke.edu
Last updated 8/31/98