Final Grades

Well, the exams have been graded and final grades have been submitted.

The grade cutoffs for the final exam are the standard array: 85-75-65-50. Averaging the cutoffs for all the assignments this semester yields final average cutoffs of: 82-72-62-48. When computing your final averages, I fudged a little bit in your favor, shifting some weight to your mid-term exam average or your final exam grade, depending on which was higher. This caused a few of you who were very close to a cutoff to receive the higher grade. This affected about 4%-5% of the class.

Once I get the statistics sheet of my spreadsheet cleaned up a little, I'll post the final version. That will probably happen tomorrow morning.

Homework #15 Grades

I've been fielding quite a few questions along the lines of "I see that there is an average score for HW#15, but I don't have a grade recorded. Did my homework get lost?" I just want to assure you that only a small number of the HW#15 grades have been recorded. (One or two sections, maybe.) So you should not be alarmed by this.

The TA's all have final exams and projects as well, and some have been getting their grading done early, while others have been waiting until after their exams early this week. I hope to have all the grades assigned and submitted on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Two Final Announcements

1. Solutions to the last homwork asignment (HW#15) are now available outside my office door.
2. At yesterday's review session, I was asked what you will need to know about the matemtaical models we studied using first order differential equations. I could think of four main things Newton's Law of Eooling and the exponential growth and decay models. You should have these memorized (i.e. the differential equations, method of solution, and applications). You should be able to recognize a logistic growth model, and be able to come up with the differential equation with some prompting. You should not memorize Torricelli's law.

One Last Chance

I'll be in my office for about an hour on Sunday, from 11:30-12:30. IF you have any last questions you would like answered, I'll try to do so.

Final Exam Review Session

I'll hold a review session for the final exam tomorrow, May 6, from 1:00-2:30pm in DH 2315. Bring your questions!

Change in office hours, sections F and G

I'll be away for Tuesday and Wednesday so I'll have to cancel my office hours. So instead I'll have an office-hours-marathon on Sunday from 4:00 to 7:00.

The Final Exam Review Page

has been posted.

Note that the final exam is a cumulative exam, thought the material that was not covered on the three midterm exams may receive some emphasis.

Assignment for Week #15

I've posted the reading and homework for Week #15. Follow the link from the schedule page.

Homework #15 is due on the last day of class. Our final exam follows hot on it's heels -- First thing Monday morning. I don't know that the homework can be graded by then, but I will make sure that solutions to HW#15 are available over the weekend. Because of this, I will not be able to accept late homework for this last assignment.

Final Exam

Our final exam is scheduled for Monday morning, May 7, from 8:30-11:30am. Some of you may have conflicts with this time, either another exam scheduled at the same time (I still don't understand why this happens) or three exams starting within a 25 hour time period. I'll hold an alternate exam on Thursday May 10, from 8:30-11:30am for these students.

If you wish to take the alternate exam, you will need to let me know in advance. You should also provide documentation of your conflict. (e.g. a printout of your course schedule with the conflicting courses highlighted).

Cumulative Averages

I know that many of you are reviewing your grades and looking ahead to the final exam. You may be wondering just where you stand in the course. With that in mind, I just looked at the "Weighted Total" column in the Blackboard gradebook. I spot checked about 5 entries, and they agree with the averages I have computed in my spreadsheet. They all matched up, so I am concluding that Blackboard is calculating grades the same way I am. I am pleased by this, since Blackboard is the most cumbersome and non-intuitive application I have used in a long time. I would hate to have to change anything.

In order to see where you stand in the course, you can look at your Weighted Total and compare it to the grade cutoffs in the "Cumulative Average" section of the Statistics page.

One word of warning. If you have turned in late homeworks, the Weighted Total will be off by some amount. If you've only turned in one late assignment the Weighted Total will be high by .01% or so. If you've turned in more than that it will be off by a greater amount. Any grade that is not an integer has been recorded as a late grade.

Assignment for Week #13

Well, I was looking at the state of our course, what we've covered recently and our schedule this week. I had initially intended to assign homework due Wednesday this week. Since I cancelled class that day, compensating for our early morning exam, that doesn't seem to make much sense. Monday is the next possible day, but that is right after carnival. I could make the assignment due a week from Wednesday, but then would I have another assignment due two days later?

Ultimately, I decided that there will be no homework assignment for this week. I'll just lump this week's and next week's assignment together and make it all due a week from Friday, i.e. April 27. It will be a bit longer than usual, so you may want to start on it earlier than usual.

SYNOPSIS: No homework this week. Long assignment due next week. Enjoy Carnival. Start your homework early.

Exam #3 Wrapup

I've updated the statistics for the course to include the results of Exam #3.

One other thing: I passed out the exams in class yesterday. If you accidentely pick up an exam that was not yours, could you bring it back to me. The person it belongs to would certainly like to have it.

Exam #3

I've posted a review page for Exam #3, which will be held next Friday, April 13, from 7:30-8:20am in UC McConomy. You can find the link on the schedule page. I'll update it with old exam problems when I get a chance.

UPDATE: I've added some old exam problems to the review page.

UPDATE: I will hold a review session tonight from 6:30-8:00 in DH 2210. You can ask whatever questions you may have then.