ECE 302 Probabilistic Methods In Electrical And Computer Engineering
Midterm exams and the related
policies
|
Midterm
exam dates and time |
Format of the midterm exams |
||
|
Midterm
exam score adjustment formulas |
What if I miss (or cannot attend) a midterm exam? |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
·
Midterm exam
dates and time:
See link.
·
Midterm exam
score adjustment formula
o
MT1_adjusted = MT1_raw;
o
MT2_adjusted = MT2_raw+12;
o
MT3_adjusted = MT3_raw+22;
The lowest of the adjusted scores will be dropped.
Example #1: if your raw scores are MT1_raw=93, MT2_raw=78, and MT3_raw=79, then
your adjusted scores are MT1_adjusted=93, MT2_adjusted=90, and MT3_adjusted=101.
Then MT2_adjusted score will be dropped. And the other two adjusted scores:
MT1_adjusted=93. and MT3_adjusted=101 will be used toward your final letter
grade. (Yes, even if the adjusted score is >100, the adjusted score(s) will still
be used for your final grade.)
Example #2: if your raw
scores are MT1_raw=61, MT2_raw=53, and MT3_raw=41, then your adjusted scores
are MT1_adjusted=61, MT2_adjusted=65, and MT3_adjusted=63. Then MT1_adjusted
score will be dropped. And the other two adjusted scores: MT2_adjusted=65. and
MT3_adjusted=63 will be used toward your final letter grade.
Rationale: Since MT3 was harder than MT2 and MT2 was
harder than MT1, we add 12 and 22 points to everybody’s MT2 and MT3 scores,
respectively, to bring their averages to a similar level as MT1. The midterm exam score drop policy will then
be applied to the adjusted scores.
Both the format
and content would be 95% similar to all the past midterm exams.
Regarding the
formula tables that will be provided in the final exam, they are identical to
the ones provided in the past exams. Basically if you see a table provided in
the past exams, you can expect the same table being provided in the current
exam as well. Conversely, if a table/formula is NOT provided in the past exams,
it will not be provided in the current exam either.
In this course, we
automatically drop the score of the lowest of the three exams. As a result, if
a student cannot attend a midterm exam, say due to unexpected medical reasons,
the score of that midterm exam will be dropped.
The other two exam scores will then be automatically used for the final
grade. The policy of “dropping the lowest midterm exam scores” is designed
specifically to help students in this situation like medical emergency. It is not designed to help improve
students’ midterm exam scores, even though it may appear to have this
unintended benefits.
For those of you who still have questions about the
rationale behind this policy, please continue reading the following examples.
Example 1: Student A attended and completed all three
midterm exams and got scores 75, 81, and 70.
Then his/her MT3 score will be dropped and the other two, 75 and 81 will
be used for his/her letter grade.
Example 2: Student B attended MT1 and MT3 but could not
attend MT2 due to medical emergencies. His/her midterm scores are 77, ---,
73. Then his/her MT2 score will be
dropped and the other two, 77 and 73 will be used for his/her letter grade.
Example 3: Student C did not have time to prepare for MT1
and MT2 and received 65 and 59, respectively. He/she would thus like to study
extra hard for MT3. His/her plan
was that by getting a good grade for MT3, he/she can drop the lowest MT2
score. By studying extra hard, he/she got 80 for
MT3. As a result, his/her midterm exam scores are 65, 59, 80. Then his/her MT2 score will be dropped and the
other two, 65 and 80 will be used for his/her letter grade. Student C
indeed harvested the score-improving benefits of this
“drop-the-lowest-midterm-exam-score” policy.
Example 4: Student D also
did not have time to prepare for MT1 and MT2 and received 62 and 63,
respectively. He/she would thus also like to study extra hard for MT3. However, on the eve before MT3, he/she got
into a medical emergency and could not attend MT3. As a result, his/her midterm exam scores are 62, 63,
---. Then his/her MT3 score will be
dropped and the other two, 62 and 63 will be used for his/her letter grade.
It turns out that many
students have similar mentality as students C and D in
Examples 3 and 4, respectively. That is,
their plan is to study extra hard in a later exam and hope that it will
“make-up” for their earlier exam results. While this strategy sometimes
works, see Student C, any student who chooses this strategy has to bear his/her
own risk of having an unexpected medical emergency in the later exam, see Student
D. It is not possible for the instructor to give a make-up exam for student D
just because student C improves his/her score in this way. In a way it is
similar to a situation that a student only studies 95% of the materials and
hoping that all the exam questions come from that part. While it is possible to gain a few extra
points this way, the student has to bear the risk that the instructor may
design a question out of the remaining 5% of the materials. It is a relatively
small risk but it is a risk that student has to bear all by him/herself.
As a result, I would highly
discourage any student to take the strategy of students
C and D. Instead, the right strategy is to study as hard
as possible for all your three exams. In this way, you will
receive similar scores of all three exams. It is true that there is no
grade-improving benefit to be had but you also do not need to worry for the
risk of having any medical emergency since you are well protected by the
score-dropping policy.
·
The midterm
exam make-up policy