BSCI 410 
Molecular Genetics 
Fall 2008  

Your grade will be based on five parts: homework, three mid-term exams, and a final.
Before anything else, grades will be normalized as described below, and all subsequent calculations are based on the normalized scores.
The purpose of this is to weigh each of the hour exams equally and to rank students in the class fairly. There is no set quota for any grade. It's possible for everyone to get an A if you all do well.

At the end of the term, I will calculate your grade two ways, and give you the higher score. The homework will count as one fifth of your grade in both methods. In the first method, each of the four exams, including the final, will count one fifth (i.e. each of the hour exams, the homework, and the final will each count 20%; the final will count the same as the hour exams in this method). In the second method, the final will count as 40% of your grade, and the lowest mid-term exam will be dropped. Selection of whichever method gives you the higher score overall will be automatic.

An average of 90 (450 out of 500) will guarantee an A, 80 (or 400) will guarantee a B, 70 (or 350) a C, etc.. However, the letter grades will also reflect my subjective sense of how much you learned, so it is possible for these thresholds to be lower (but not higher). For four of the past six years the cutoff for an A has been about 84 (420 out of 500), and 74 (370 out of 500) for a B. In the other two years, 87 (435 out of 500), 77 (385) and 67 (335) were used as the cut-offs. Grades below C are evaluated carefully on an individual basis.
This year, 2008, the cutoff for an A was 84 (420 out of 500), 74 (370 out of 500) for a B, and 64 (320 out of 500) for a C.

Exams (80%). There will be three hour exams and a final exam. There will be a review session before each exam. The final will be given on Monday, December 15 from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. (I did not select this time!).

In order to make a fair comparison among different exams and students, I will normalize the scores for each of the five parts to a mean of 80 and a standard deviation of 10. Your normalized score for each exam will be:

(10/s)(X-m+8s) = 80 + (X-m)(10/s)

where X is your score, m is the mean, and s the standard deviation. Normalization of homework grades is discussed below.

Homework (20%). Originally:
"There will be five homework assignments, each worth 20 points. The lowest score will be dropped, so your homework grade will be based on your top four scores." I decided not to assign homework for exam 2 ("homework 3"). The other homeworks were not re-numbered (so there was no homework 3, but homeworks 4 and 5). This is for consistency with the syllabus and other handouts. Thus, there are only four homeworks. As promised, one will be dropped. The top two scores will each count twice, so that the total is out of 100.

Each of the homework scores will be normalized by the following formula before the lowest grade is selected for dropping:

(2.5/s)(X-m+8s) = 20 + (X-m)(2.5/s)

where X is your score, m is the mean and s the standard deviation (of homeworks actually turned in). This will generate a mean of 20 and a standard deviation of 2.5 for each assignment.

Homework will be assigned one week (or more) before the due date, which will usually be three meetings before the exam, so that I can grade all of the homework and return it at the review session if not the class meeting before. The idea of assigning homework is to help you learn the material. Late homework will not be accepted, and no excuses regarding illness, car trouble, etc. will be considered. Dropping the lowest grade is designed to address this. However, if you have to miss two homework assignments, and you can give me valid excuses for both, then I will excuse the absence (your third-highest homework grade will be counted twice). This means that when you miss the first homework you should document your excuse, but don't bother me about it until you miss a second time. You are free to discuss homework problems with others in the class, and I especially encourage you to work in groups for the first (Internet resources) homework. However, you are expected to come up with your own answers.

Bottom line: Normalization is about weighting all exams equally and ranking students in the class fairly. Your final grade will be based on a subjective evaluation of your performance that takes into consideration your ranking in the class.