21-270: Exam #2 Results

UPDATE: I've corrected a variety of errors, as pointed out in class yesterday afternoon.

I'm making your Exam #2 grades available on the Blackboard site. I usually don't do this until I've had a chance to return the exams to you, and give you an idea what those scores mean (e.g. what the grade cutoffs are). Tomorrow is the deadlne for choosing the pass/fail option and for withdrawing without a "W" on your transcript. So here is what I can tell you:

Grade cutoffs for Exam #2 are: A, 65-100; B, 50-64; C, 40-49; D, 20-39.

Let me take a moment to explain how I'll determine your final grades at the end of the semester. I'll determine grade cutoffs for your final average by averaging the grade cutoffs for each assignment. For example, to determine the A cutoff, I will compute

.15*[85]+.6*[80 + 65 + (A cutoff for Exam #3)]+.25*[A cutoff for Final].

I'll make a similar computation for the other grades. Currently, those cutoffs are:

Grade cutoffs for Cumulative Average: A, 75.00-100; B, 61.00-74.99; C, 51.00-60.99; D, 34.00-50.99.

The current cutoffs were computed in the following way:

( .15*[Homework Cutoff] + .6*[(Exam #1 Cutoff) + (Exam #2 Cutoff)] )/(.75)

where, for instance, to compute the B cutoff for the cumulative average, you would use the B cutoffs for the Homework and Exams. You can compare your "Weighted Average" from the Blackboard gradebook to these cutoffs to see where you stand.

Here is a comprehensive set of statistics for the course so far.