CMSC 311: Computer Organization

Grades '98 Grades

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Your grades here will be kept as up to date as possible during the semester. Please make sure that what I have corresponds to what you think you have. With this page you should know where you stand at all times during the course. If you have any questions or concerns, you know where to reach me.

                     --mmh

Your Grades

Grades

Grading Policy

I have a rather simple grading policy which gets very complex very fast. After I have all the grades for an assignment, I find the median and the standard deviation. The lowest C is the minimum of 70 and max (50,median). The lowest D is at most 1 standard deviation below the lowest C. The lowest B is at most 1 standard deviation above the lowest C, and the lowest A is at most 1 standard deviation above the lowest B. Note that the final scale will never be higher than standard 90-80-70-60 scale. This is great to let you know how you're doing, but at the end doesn't matter. When all the grades are in, I take your quiz score as 15% of your raw grade, midterm as approximately 40%, and final as 45%. I apply the same multipliers to the midterm and final cut-offs, and use the 90-80-70 scale on your quiz average (after dropping the lowest two quizzes). This determins the raw cutoffs.
Because numbers and I don't mix, All of this is done by a program.
From there, I decide the real cutoffs at my discretion (generally very close to those computed), and decide borderline cases based on a variety of factors.
This means: don't worry terribly if your percentage seems low. If you get an 'A', it's a real 'A' even if you only have 84%. I do not give grades. You earn them.

This page, all problem sets, and exams linked to it are copyrighted. Use of these pages for the CMSC 311 class at the University of Maryland is permitted. Any other use requires the permission of the author (Dr. Michelle Hugue, meesh@cs.umd.edu).

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Maintained by MM Hugue.
meesh@cs.umd.edu
Last change: March 04, 1998.