Grading.  There will be THREE mid-term exams, equally weighted and each 50 min in length.  Each exam will be cumulative, though weighted primarily towards the most recent material.  Physiology is an integrated field, so material in the first part of the course is relevant to subsequent parts of the course.

Grades will be based on a curve, with the average set (approximately) to the average UW grade for a 400-level science course.

Attendance. Attendance at lectures is highly desirable, but not required. However, we have observed over the years a clear and repeatable pattern -- namely, students who attend class regularly receive significantly higher grades on average than those who skip class.  Whether this is a cause and effect relationship can be debated, of course.   [Maybe students who skip classes are just poor students in general.] In any case, you are completely responsible for material that is presented in lecture, even if it is not on a handout.

Exams.  By UW policy, exams can NOT be given to anyone in advance of a scheduled exam. There is no exception.

Make-up exams.  These are not permitted except under special circumstances.  If you miss an exam because of illness, you must provide a written excuse from a physician.   If you will miss an exam because of participation in a sports event, you must provide a written excuse in advance from your coach.  If you want to miss an exam for any other reason, you must approach us well in advance and request an exemption (going to a friend's wedding is not an acceptable reason).  If you miss an exam because you oversleep, miss a bus, simply forgot, or weren’t in the mood, you are out of luck -- no makeup will be given. 

Exam questions may be drawn from lectures, text, and any material on the class website. We will post sample exams on the web, so that you can see what kinds of questions we have asked in the past. We will attempt to schedule review session before the exam. In our experience, students who attend these reviews get higher grades than those who do not. Of course, this might not be cause and effect, for reasons given above. 

Re-grades.  We work hard to try to grade accurately and fairly, but we aren't perfect.  So after each exam, we will post on the web an exam with correct answers. Consult this key if you don't understand why you lost points on a particular answer. If you still don't understand, you may turn in your exam for a re-grade.  Please provide a written statement, explaining succinctly why you think a re-grade is appropriate.  Also, be sure to check whether we have added your points correctly – arithmetic errors are of course the most common form of grading errors.

ALWAYS SAVE ALL EXAMS UNTIL THE END OF THE COURSE.  On occasion, we do (unfortunately!) make errors in recording exam grades.  The only way we can correct such errors will be if you have SAVED your graded exams.  Note that on the third midterm, we will write down the scores we have recorded for you all prior midterms. When you pick up your exam, you should check the recorded scores against your actual exam scores. [Incidentally, you should routinely do this for all your classes -- we aren't the only profs who make mistakes! Don't assume that grades are always recorded accurately.]