About how your final grades are calculated

Attendence: this is worth 10% of your final grade.

Midterm exam: this is worth 30% of your final grade

End of term exam: this is worth 30% of your final grade

Homework: this is worth 30% of your final grade.

For homework, the end of term score is calculated by taking all the grades for homework done during the semester, removing the lowest score and then adding the remaining scores and dividing by the number of homeworks that were given, minus 1.

It is arranged this way so that if some-one makes a mistake, or for some reason gets a low score for one of their homeworks, it will not affect their final grade.

If the homework was totally wrong and very badly written the student may get zero, but then this zero would be discounted.

However, to get a score you must produce the homework. If homework is not done then no score can be given, and this is not equal to zero.

No homework = no score but “no score” is not equal to zero. Students who miss their homework will receive no score.

So, if I discount the lowest score and a student has only done one homework, then that score is the lowest score and will be discounted. Effectively giving a homework score of zero.

For example.

Five homeworks are given in one semester. Imagine:

Student A gets 65%,  78%,  85%,  40% , 82% then the score will be [discount the lowest – 40%] (65 + 78 + 85 + 82)/4 = 77.5 x 30% = 23.25 (23.25% of final grade)

Student B gets 85%, misses one homework, then gets 80%,  73%,  79%. The score will be [discount the lowest score – 73%] (85 + 80 + 79)/4 x 30% = 18.3

Student C misses the first two homeworks and then gets 66%,  93%, and misses the final homework. The score will be [discount the lowest score - 66] (93)/4 x 30% = 6.97

Student D misses four homeworks and gets 95% in the last. Now 95% is the only score and so is also the lowest score, and is discounted. So giving a score of 0.

The homework scoring is arranged this way so that students who do their homework, even though occasionally it may not be very good, will be able to achieve a score, and take some benefit from their work, while students who do not do the homework will be penalized in proportion to the number of homeworks they miss.