PHYS 102 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Course Grading
Course grading will proceed in compliance with University policy as given in Article 3, Part 1 of the Student Code.
Page Contents
Assignments, Points, and Grade Drops
Effect of ABS and EX on grades
Gradebook
You will be able to view your grades on all components of the course using the course gradebook at my.physics.illinois.edu/gradebook. Check that your lab and quiz grades are correctly entered in the gradebook.
Any discrepancies found in your student gradebook should be brought to the attention of your section instructor immediately..
Grading
Your final grade for PHYS 102 will be based upon your total score on all the components of the course. The total possible score is 1000 points.
| Course component | Number of assignments | Number dropped per semester | Maximum points per semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture and homework components: | |||
| Prelectures | 26 | 3 | 25 |
| Checkpoints | 28 | 3 | 25 |
| Lectures | 29 | 5 | 24 |
| Homework | 14 | 1 | 75 |
| 149 points | |||
| Discussion components: | |||
| Discussion Participation | 14 | 1 | 65 |
| Discussion Skill Checks | 10 | 1 | 91 |
| 156 points | |||
| Lab components: | |||
| Prelabs | 11 | 1 | 40 |
| Labs | 8 | 1 | 140 |
| Lab practical exam | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| 195 points | |||
| Exam components: | |||
| Tests | 6 | 0 | 6 x 60 = 360 |
| Final exam | 1 | 0 | 140 |
| 500 points | |||
Automatically Dropped Assignments
The number of assignments dropped for each course component is listed in the Number dropped per semester column of the PHYS 102 Course Grading Table.
The lowest score(s) in these components will be automatically dropped in the calculation of your final grade. This is a process that happens on the back-end of our calculation; all scores are shown in the gradebook.
Bonus Points: 30 points
You will have an opportunity to earn up to 30 bonus points via the following activities.
- Answering iClicker lecture questions correctly
- Attending office hour with one or more questions
You can earn up to one bonus point per activity per week, for a total of up to two bonus points each week.
Bonus points will be distributed to the non-exam portion of the course when calculating your final score at the end of the semester.
Point of clarity on bonus points: Bonus points are added to your non-exam scores up to, but not exceeding a 500 point total (remember, all of the course activities other than the exams count up to 500 points). Only bonus points that will bring your non-exam total up to 500 points may be used.
Here's an example: I have earned 496 points for pre-lecture, checkpoints, homework, discussion skill checks, discussion problem sets, labs, pre-labs and my lab practical. I have also earned 8 bonus points for attending office hours. I can only use 4 of my bonus points to calculate my final grade.
EX and ABS scores
Any ABS scores will be treated like a 0 score during final grade calculations.
Any EX scores you may be assigned in the gradebook will be replaced with the average (before any drops are applied) of the non-EX scores for that assignment type. This operation will be done during final grade calculation and will not display in the my.physics gradebook.
For example, if there are 10 Discussion Participation assignments setup for your course, and you have two EX scores, 100% for seven of your scores and ABS for one of your scores, those two EXs should evaluate to 87.5% each. So your final Discussion Participation scores used in the final calculation should be:
| ABS(0) | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | EX(0) | EX(0) |
becomes
| 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 87.5% | 87.5% |
After replacing EX with the average of all the remaining scores, the lowest score(s) will be dropped.
In this case, if 1 low score were dropped, your Discussion Participation grade would be 97.2%.
Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the attendance policy for this course.
Final Grade
The following table will be used to assign final grades. A final grade estimation tool will be made available in the my.physics gradebook in the last few weeks of the semester.
| Letter | Range |
|---|---|
| A+ | 1000 - 970 |
| A | 969.99 - 930 |
| A- | 929.99 - 900 |
| B+ | 899.99 - 870 |
| B | 869.99 - 830 |
| B- | 829.99 - 800 |
| C+ | 799.99 - 770 |
| C | 769.99 - 730 |
| C- | 729.99 - 700 |
| D+ | 699.99 - 670 |
| D | 669.99 - 630 |
| D- | 629.99 - 600 |
| F | 599.99 - 0 |