Standard Grading Policy/Philosophy

The following is the way I normally handle course grades in courses with large enrollments.

• Extra credit is offered for work outside the syllabus only in unusual circumstances.  See below for details.
• Homework balances Exams: In courses with homework delivered by online systems, it is normal for students to have rather high homework scores and rather low test scores, which average each other out.
• Exam grades are scaled on a per-Exam basis.
  1.  Note that I say "scaled", not "curved."   In traditional "curving," a class average is pre-determined, regardless of the class performance.  I feel that this is just too arbitrary.  Instead, my "scaling" is based on what I consider to be an acceptable performance on the exam.  The overall performance of the class is considered, but not the only factor.
  2. My "scaling" formula will never give scores above 100% (or below 0% either).  There is no such thing as "better than perfect."
     A consequence of this is that the scaling adds more points to low scores than to high scores.  This is not unfair, because the added points are not gifts to be doled out equally, but rather corrections for the fact that I did not create the "ideal test."
  3. Sometimes I offer Extra Credit questions on exams, which can result in a score above 100%.  Those are gifts (albeit ones that must be earned).
• No adjustment of scores at the end of a semester normally occurs, because scores were already adjusted on a per-Exam basis.  This has the advantage that your projected grade in the class can be calculated at any time.  Feel free to come ask me.
• Numerical scores are converted to letter grades according to the following table:
  

  <60	60 – <70	70 – <73	73 – <77	77 – <80	80 – <83	83 – <87	87 – <90	90 – <94	94+
  E	D	C–	C	C+	B–	B	B+	A–	A

  • Note that this does not exactly apply to labs which have multiple sections.  In that case, the number-to-letter conversion may take into account variability between the sections, including student average performance, instructor expectations, and environmental factors.
• "Extrapolated Grades" are sometimes offered, which predict your final grade based on your performance up to that time.  These are careful predictions.  For instance, if you are doing better in homeworks than on tests, that is taken into account so that the result is the same regardless of how many homeworks or tests have been completed.  If a course drops the lowest homework, the extrapolated grade attempts to account for the fact that your lowest homework may be in the future.
  If you continue at the same level of performance, you should expect your grade to remain about the same.  Conversely, your grade is unlikely to change due to factors other than your level of performance.

Extra Credit

In college courses, the concept of extra credit runs into two problems which compound each other: Time and Fairness.

Time

College work is nearly always limited by time, at least at Geneseo, and certainly in Geneseo physics.  Students can best improve their performance by spending more time practicing (or making their study time more effective).  However, this is not to say that students actually have more time available!  Diligent students already spend a reasonable amount of time (or more!) on coursework.  More time is hard to come by.

Completing extra credit work would require even more of your time, and that extra time must come at the expense of time doing regular studying.  If you are in need of improving your grade, it is my belief that your time will be better spent on earning more regular credit, rather than on extra credit work.  Completing homework and studying for exams has the biggest payoff, both in terms of learning the intended course material, and in terms of raising your course grade.

By the way, the time-limited nature of college work applies to instructors as well.  Asking for extra credit is asking your instructor to do extra work evaluating your work.  This might not be a big deal for one student; but to be fair, opportunities cannot be offered to only one student.

Fairness

In order to be fair to all students, any extra credit opportunity would have to be offered to all students in the course.  If it is of any significance, many students will want to earn the extra points, at which point it becomes a de facto additional part of the course.  In the end, all that is achieved is the creation of an expectation for even more work, both for the students and the instructor.  This in an environment when no one has extra time to spare.