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.

Back to Work

Well, I'm back from my trip. I'll be catching up on my email this morning. If you've been waiting to hear from me, I should get back to you sometime today.

Today, I will also post some old exam problems on the Exam #2 Review Page, I'll also try to get you some more information about an Exam #2 Review Session, which I'll try to schedule for Monday evening.

Recitation for March 7

Tomorrow in Recitation your TA's should have solutions to Exam #1 available, as well as most of the exams submitted for regrades. A few that were submitted later than the others are not done yet.

Office Hours for Tuesday 2/27

I haven't been very good about posting to the blog lately, but I'll try to keep up with it more. How's this: I'm going to have to move my office hours on Tuesday to later in the day. Rather than 10:30am-12:20pm, I'll plan to hold them from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.

changed office hours

Just for the next week I'll have office hours on Monday from 5 to 7 pm instead of Thursday from 10:30 to noon, so you can come to pick up your graded homeworks with the solutions. I'll have as usual office hours on Monday from 10:30 to noon as well, but I cannot give you the hws and the solutions at that time.

Turning in Late Homework

According to the policy set out on the Grading Page of the 21-260 Website, I accept late homework until the solutions are distributed. This typically happens during recitation six days after the due date.

Since Exam #1 will be held next Wednesday (You remembered Exam #1, right -- more on that later) graded homework and homework solutions will be distributed starting Monday afternoon. If you plan to turn in late homework, as some athletes do this week, you must turn it in to me by 1:20. You can give it to me during lecture, or put it in my mailbox.

The Blackboard Site is Available

I've made the Blackboard site available. It looks like all the grades for HW#1 have been recorded, as well as some grades for HW#2. For news and information about the course, you should check the course website, or this Blog. I'll try to keep them both updated. The Blackboard site will mainly be there for you to check your grades.

Office Hours for Dr. Handron

This semester, starting tomorrow, I'll hold regular office hours on Tuesdays, from 10:30-12:20, and on Wednesdays, from 1:30-3:20. I'll be in my office during those times, and you can see me to discuss any aspect of the course (homework, previous grades, etc.)

Office Hours for sections F and G

Office hours for Sections F and G are Tuesdays 3:30 to 5:00 and Wednesdays 1:00 to 2:00. My office is in the Physical Plant Building, please follow the directions to find it.

Information for Sections A & B

My office is WeH 7215. It was listed incorrectly on the course website. My office hours are Tuesdays 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursdays 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Our Textbook is Sold Out

I have heard from a few students that the CMU Bookstore has run out of our textbook. You may all rest assured that I have anticipated just such an occurrence. The homework problems are conveniently available as a pdf file. I won't do that every week, but I know this is a common problem in the first week.

Incidentally, if you are sans textbook, and would like a reference while you complete the homework, you can use the lecture notes I posted earlier.

Textbooks, Old and New

Some students have asked about using the 7th edition of our textbook, rather than the current 8th edition. To my knowledge, there are no major changes to the text. There are a few changes, though. If you plan to use the 7th edition, you will want to pay careful attention to the exercises, or you might end up doing the wrong problems.

For instance, this week, the problems 1.3.2, 1.3.10, and 1.3.27 are the same. The 7th edition does not have a problem 1.3.30, though.

If you do decide to get by with the 7th edition, you will be responsible for making sure you do the correct problems. If you fail to do so, and points are deducted, well... don't come cryin' ta me.

Office Hours for Week #1

I'll hold office hours tomorrow (Thursday) from 1:30-3:20. At the start of next week I'll announce my regular office hours for the semester.

Class Schedule for Wednesday

Since Lecture 2 (12:30) did not meet on Monday, due to the half-holiday, I'm going to cancel the 10:30 (Lecture 1) lecture on Wednesday. This will make sure that the two lectures stay on the same schedule.

I announced this at the end of class yesterday, but I want to make sure the word gets out.