Sun, 11 Oct 2020, 17:17

My students,

My TAs and I have now finished grading the midterm and the grades will be
posted this evening.  For your information, the highest grade was 93, the
lowest was 20, and the median was 62.

Two reasons for me sending this email.

First, I realize that some of you did not do as well as you had hoped.  Some
of the problems were more challenging than you expected.  I want to assure
you that regardlesss how you did on this first midterm, you can still earn
an A in the course.  Of course I am interested in how much you have learned
thus far, but I am far more snterested in how much you will have learned at
the end of the semester.  You still have four labs to do, another midterm,
and most importantly a comprehensive final exam that will test as best I can
everything in the course.

The formula I gave you on the first day of classes with respect to points on
various items in the course is a starting point for assigning grades.  After
I have graded the final exam and have your complete record in front of me,
I will try to assign your final grade based on what you know at the end of the
semeseter, rather than what you know six weeks into the semester.

Bottom line: If you did well on the first exam, great!  What you are doing
is working; please keep doing it.  But if you did not do well, please do not
give up.  There is plenty of opportunity for you to excel, and if you do,
I will ignore the first midterm and the first few assignments.  I know the
course is challenging, but I have done this before and I know that almost
all of you can succeed.  If you are anxious and want to talk to me privately,
let me know and we will schedule a Zoom meeting.

Second, please do look over your exam and the solution sheet which is on the
course webpage.  Although we try very hard to not make mistakes in grading,
we are human, and if we have made any mistakes, I want them corrected.  If you
feel there has been a grading error, please contact one of the TAs.  He will
either explain your error to you, or if he feels there has been an error in
grading, he will bring it to me.  We will correct it if in fact there has been
a grading error.  If you are not satisfied with the TA's explanation, you are
always welcome to bring it to my attention.

One thing I should point out: Please do not use the above paragraph as an
invitation to grub for points.  Very few of you would anyway, but I want to
discourage those few who might from doing so.  A few points really will not
matter.  On the other hand, a deep misunderstanding of the concepts will
matter, so please use your own judgment.

Good luck with the rest of the course.

...and please stay safe.

Yale Patt