Grading Policy

This course is graded on a straight scale and will not be curved. That means that each grade category is does not have a weighted average and that a total point count is used to determine your grade. This allows you compensate for missing points in one category with extra points in another category.

Final Letter Grades

If you are unfamiliar with interval notation, ‘[’ / ‘]’ include a number and ‘(‘ / ‘)’ exclude a number. “[90, 93)” means the range of numbers between 90 and 93, including 90 but excluding 93.

[100, inf): A+
[93, 100): A
[90, 93): A-
[87, 90): B+
[83, 87): B
[80, 83): B-
[77, 80): C+
[73, 77): C
[70, 73): C-
[67, 60): D+
[63, 67): D
[60, 63): D-
[0, 60): F

Attendance (0 points)

Attendance is not required for this course. I respect your personal learning processes, be it by attending and participating in lectures or by watching their recordings. That being said, I may open up a survey to ask you about what you learned at the end of each lecture, giving you 1 point of extra credit for each survey.

Homework (60 points)

There will be 12 homework assignments in this course. Each assignment should take around 60 to 90 minutes to complete. Late assignments will not be accepted. Each homework assignment is worth 6 points. Every additional point you earn past 60 points is worth 50%. This means that if you do all 12 homework assignments, the number of points you get from homework will be 60 + (12 * 0.5) = 66.

The goal of homework is to reinforce concepts introduced in lecture and to give hands-on experience. To emphasize this, your homework grades will be converted the following way for final grade calculation: what number we report to you will be the raw score. On the left is the raw score and on the right is the adjusted final score.

[0, 0.5] = 0
(0.5, 2] = 2
(2, 4] = 4
(4, 6] = 6
Scores above 6 will not be adjusted

This allows you to get full credit while allowing the staff to point out mistakes.

Advanced (40 points)

Each week will have at an associated set of advanced exercises. In general, advanced exercises must be checked out in person during a staff member’s office hours unless otherwise noted. Each set of advanced exercises will have points associated with each exercises. You may pick and choose to do whichever exercises appeal to you. You must check out the exercises you choose to do for a set before the specified deadline. No late checkouts are allowed. Similar to homework, additional points earned after the initial 40 will be worth 50%.

Checking out the set of advanced exercises 2 or more days before the due date will result in your being awarded 2 points of extra credit. Checking out the set of advanced exercises 1 day before the due date will result in your being awarded 1 point of extra credit.