Grading

Grading • Grades

Grading

It is important for you to work on the material as we discuss it in class. Keep up with the readings, attend lectures and labs, and do the homework and the projects! If you do these things, your grade will take care of itself, and you will enjoy the class, too.

Note: You are not in competition with other students in the class for your grade. We do not grade on a curve.

Grading for Labs and Projects with Associated WebQs

Many of the labs and projects have accompanying Catalyst WebQs quizzes. For those assignments, your grade will be divided between the score you receive on the quiz and the points the TA awards for your work on the lab or project. To do well on the assignment, you must do well on both the hands-on work and the questions.

General grading information for the University of Washington is available here.

1-1-1-1 Rule for Project Parts

You may turn in one part of one project one day late one time during the quarter without penalty. No other late projects will be accepted. Always turn in what you have completed, partial or otherwise. Some credit is better than no credit!

Grading Policy

Grades will follow the University of Washington Undergraduate Grading policy.

Late/Missed Policy

Late homework, labs, QuickClicks, and QuickWrites are not accepted and receive a score of zero. Late projects will receive a score of zero with one exception: the 1-1-1-1 Rule (see sidebar).

This class moves fast. It's better to just move on then be constantly trying to catch up. In life, sometimes things happen. They might take the form of a medical or family emergency or simply staying up all night for a paper due the same day.

To compensate for not accepting work late, at the end of the quarter before we calculate grades, we will drop your lowest scores in each of these categories:

image of pie chart showing percentage weight toward your grade for course activities

The breakdown of your grade for this class is shown in the table and the pie chart.

Percentage
 Deliverable Total Dropped Net
Points Each
Total Points
45%
Projects
3 0
3
150 points
450 points
14%
Pop Quizzes
9 2
7
20 points
140 points
24%
Labs
14 2
12
20 points
240 points
12%
Pop QuickWrites
10 2 
8
15 points
120 points
5%
Participation
 n/a n/a
n/a
n/a
50 points
100%
Total possible for class—
1000 points

Evaluation of Student Work:

You may expect to receive comments on and evaluations of assignments and submitted work in a timely fashion. All work from the course will be returned, with comments, within two weeks of the last class of the quarter.

Your written work will be graded based on its clarity, organization, balance, amount of pertinent detail included, depth and clarity of evaluative and analytical comments, and preparation. It will also be graded on the extent to which a good understanding of the material presented in the course is shown and on the extent to which directions are followed. If evaluative or analytical comments are required, they should be supported by factual evidence, either from readings or other documents. Other aspects of individual assignments may also be included in the grading.

Written work that shows a lack of understanding of subject matter, is unclear or poorly organized, contains few or irrelevant details, does not follow directions, contains little or unsubstantiated evaluative commentary, or is poorly written, prepared (e.g. typos, grammatical errors), or documented will receive low grades.

Students are encouraged to take drafts of their writing assignments to the English Department Writing Center for assistance with using citations ethically and effectively. Information on scheduling an appointment can be found here.

Scores in MyUW Gradebook

Your scores on the various graded tasks in the class will be available over the web through MyUW. Use your UWNetID and UW password for access.

Questions about homework and quiz scores

If you believe that we made a mistake in grading a quiz or homework, please do the following:

  1. Write an email to your TA (cc to the professor) describing what you think is the problem.
  2. Read the TA's response carefully. If you still think there is a problem, reply to the email and tell the TA you would like to discuss it.
  3. Have a discussion with the TA.
  4. If you disagree with the outcome of that discussion, tell the TA and then set up a meeting with the professor.
  5. Discuss it with the professor. Presumably we can come to a resolution at that time.

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Grades

Your grade is calculated by taking the number of points you earn, dividing by the total possible points to get the percent correct, then multiplying the percentage by 4. The resulting decimal grade between 0 and 4.0 is your grade.

Use the conversion table to convert your grade for the class to a letter grade.

Grade (4-pt Scale)
Letter Grade

3.81–4.00

A

3.60–3.80

A-

3.47–3.59

B+

3.33–3.46

B

3.20–3.32

B-

3.06–3.19

C+

2.93–3.05

C

2.80–2.92

C-

2.66–2.79

D+

2.53–2.65

D

2.40–2.52

D-

2.39 or less

E

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Last updated: Tuesday, 07-Apr-2009 19:10:40 PDT
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