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ITM 433
Networking
Grading
General
Course grading will be
based on whole letter grades, without plusses and minuses.
Points and the Final
Grade:
-
If your final total is 900 or higher, you will be guaranteed an A.
-
If your final total is 800 or higher, you will be guaranteed a B.
-
If your final total is 700 or higher, you will be guaranteed a C.
-
To be guaranteed a D, you must have a point total of 600 AND 60% or higher on exam scores alone. Homework and extra credit will not allow you to pass if you have a failing understanding of the material.
In
some cases, I can justify a slightly higher grade than the strict point
total would suggest. For instance, if you received a D on your fist
midterm and A's on later exams, I might downplay the D in the weighting.
There are other special cases. I
will give you the highest grade that I can justify.
At
the same time, don't come to me and say, "I need a B." It would be
terribly unfair to give someone a B when someone else who did better got
a C. So all I can do if you ask is to tell you, "Well, work hard, think
well, and earn it." In general, I won't do something for one student
unless I do it for the entire class.
In
general, I will not do something for someone that I will not do for
everyone else. For instance, it would not be fair to give one student a
“B” because they came to me and said that they needed a B when other
students who did as well or better got Cs.
Also please note that "working really hard" has nothing to do with
grading. You will be judged entirely on your performance.
The final exam will be selectively
cumulative. I’m not interested in what you learned early and then
forgot. I’m interested in what you know when you get out of the course.
Homework (100 Points)
Homework is due at the start of class on
the day assigned.
Homework handed in after the start of class on the date assigned will
receive half credit.
Homework handed in after the start of the next class will receive no
credit.
Give good answers
Unless a one-word answer is sufficient, write in complete sentences.
Avoid vague referents,
such as “it.”
If
asked what an acronym means, don’t just spell out its name. Describe it.
Points for Homework
At
the end of the semester, your total number of points for homework will
be totaled.
This total will be divided by the total number of possible points.
The resulting
percentage will be multiplied by 100.
This will tell you the number of points you will get toward your final
total.
Homework Quality
I will not accept
unprofessional work for homework
Do it and do it well
Unless you do all
questions, you will lose a lot of points
The end of chapter questions is where real learning takes place. Zero
points if you don’t do them.
Examinations (900 Points)
Exams will be a combination of multiple choice questions and short answers (a few sentences).
For short answers, there normally will be three to five per page. Some will be worth a single point. Others will be worth multiple points.
Because of the use of
student-generated prose, you must communicate very clearly. If your
answer is not clear, unambiguous, and understood by me, it will receive
little or no credit. The burden is on you to communicate clearly, not on
me to interpret what you have said. You will have to answer in complete
sentences.
Exams will also include multiple guess questions.
A correct answer will receive one point.
An omission will receive no points
An incorrect answer will lose 1/4 point.
If someone gets 38 out of 50, for instance, they will have 12 wrong. They will lose an additional 3 points (12/4), for a net score of 35 out of 50.
This “SAT scoring” is guessing-neutral. If you know the answer, you will get it correct. If you are completely ignorant, a blind guess will have a 1/4 chance of succeeding, so a 1/4 point deduction neutralizes blind guessing.
In general, if you can eliminate one choice, it pays to guess.
Is SAT scoring fair? Yes. For instance, suppose that someone knows nothing. Without the adjustment, they would receive 25%. That is hardly fair. With adjustment, they get 0%, which is hard but fair.
Exams are very hard. I expect you to know the material well. A shoddy understanding will not get you a C. It will get you an F.
Exams will be taken uniformly from the readings and class presentations and will cover both more important and "less important" material. Don't "cherry pick" when you study.
Each exam will be curved separately.
Multiply the curved percentage times the number of points in the exam
This will tell you the number of points you will get toward your final total.
Example. You get 80% curved on a 250-point exam. You get 200 points.
Extra Credit
If you find an error in the manuscript, you will get 1 point of extra credit, perhaps more
You must send in the report by e-mail.
Only the first person reporting the error gets extra credit.
You must give the page and line number.
You must tell me what the error is and what should be done to correct it.