Wed, 5 October 2016, 23:17

My students,

Just a short note to all of you, but in particular to those who feel they
did not do well on the first midterm today.

It was the first exam, and it is important to not be discouraged.  We have
another midterm and a final, plus four programming labs.  So there is plenty
of opportunity to show that a weak first midterm was the result of a bad day,
or not studying properly, or whatever.

My grading model is to look at what you do the entire semester, and if you
do better on the 2nd midterm and still better on the final exam, I tend to
forgive a bad first midterm.  In that case your grade will be much better
than what you would get if I simply averaged your grades.  So, this is not
the time to give up.

For those of you who hit a home run on the midterm today, I want to make sure
you do not consider it a time to coast.  That has spelled disaster too many
times in the past.  You have one great midterm under your belt.  Please stay
focused and show me more.

For all of you, I have intentionally assigned nothing due on Monday.  A time
to just take the weekend off.  If you happen to like football, enjoy the game
with Oklahoma, either on TV or in Dallas.  If in Dallas, please drive
carefully.  I would like to see you all healthy in class next Monday.

Good luck with the rest of the course.



Yale Patt