1. Your grade in the class is determined by how well you do relative to other students.
On each of the exams, this is done by converting your raw score into your normalized exam score. The normalized score shows how many standard deviations above or below the mean you scored.
Normalized Exam Score = (Raw Score -Mean)/Standard Deviation.
For the Aplia assignments, the total number of correct answers is treated as an exam score and normalized.
Normalized Aplia Score = (Total Correct Answers -Mean)/ Standard Deviation
For the course, this is done by taking a weighted average of your normalized exam scores where the weights are how much each exam counts toward your grade.
Course Score = .2 First Exam Normalized Score + .2 Second Exam Normalized Score + .2 Normalized Aplia Score +.4 Final Exam Normalized Score
2. The course score shows how well you performed relative to other students' mean performance.
A negative normalized exam or course score denotes below average student performance. For instance a normalized exam score of -1 means your score was one standard deviation below the mean.
A positive course score denotes above average student performance. For instance, a normalized exam score of +2 means your scored 2 standard deviations above the mean.
3. Your course score is then used to assign a letter grade for the class.
For the purpose of assigning grades all sections of the course for the semester are considered as a group.
Grades are assigned using a modified curve.
Roughly speaking, A's are earned by all students who average two standard deviation above the mean on the tests and final (a course score of 2).
B's are earned by students averaging 1 standard deviation above the mean.
C's are earned by students averaging 0 standard deviation below the mean.
D's and F's are given to students scoring below -.5 standard deviations from the mean.
The course scores required for each grade are sometimes adjusted for the overall performance of all sections in a given semester relative to the historical performance of past classes.
4. You can always see complete statistics including your score on all competed assignments, means and standard devitations on the exams and Aplia assignemtns, your score on the in-class assignments and your current course score by looking at the online grade roster.
The online grade roster is updated throughout the semester and is available for downloading.
If you have problems downloading the Online Grade Roster read the Troubleshooting Guide.