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.

Exam #2 Wrapup

I've updated the Statistics to include the results of Exam #2. You can you can use this page to gauge your standing in the course.

I'll get solutions for Exam #2 to your TA's so they can be distributed during recitations on Thursday.

Incidentally, I am frequently asked, "What do the letter grade cutoffs mean for my final grade?" or words to that effect. To get the cutoffs for final grades, the A cutoff for example, I simply average the A cutoffs for each assignment, just like I average your grades. You can see the current grade cutoffs in the top section, labeled "Cumulative Average."

Assignment for Week #11

The assignment for Week #11 has been posted. You can find a link on the Schedule page of the Course Website.