Thu, 26 Nov 2020, 02:35

My students,

You should have received email from the University today outlining changes
in grading regulations for this academic year.  In particular, one change
I am happy about is the extension of the Q-drop deadline to December 9.
This is a stressful time for all of us right now, and if you feel reducing
your stress level requires Q-dropping one or more of your courses, then this
may be the right answer.

The other important regulation change that is in effect this academic year
allows you to change any grade you receive to Pass/Fail after the semester
is over.  I am not a fan of that change, but it is available to you, so
I want to be sure you are aware of it.

I also want to say something about your final grade in 460N.  Some of you
are worried because your performance on the two midterms has been much lower
than what you have achieved in other courses.

First, do not be disheartened by the low medians.  Those of you who I have
had in 306 know that I believe an exam should include challenging questions
if they are to prepare you for an engineering career.  I don't expect you to
be able to do all of them in an hour and a half, but I do expect you to
demonstrate that you can do some of them.

As you know, you have 3 hours to take the final exam.  I will try to make up
the exam such that you can do it in much less than 3 hours, so the time
pressure you had on the midterms should not be present on the final exam.
The exam itself will be in two parts.  Part A will consist of 5 straightforward,
non-chanlleng problems.  Part B will consist of four challenging problems. 
Even if you get 0 on all of Part B, if you show you have mastered Part A and
some of the labs, you will pass the course.  My intnet is to use Part A to
help determine who gets a C and who really did not take the course.  I will
use Part B to differentiate the A, B, and C grades.  Finally, in determining
your grade in the course, I will have in front of me your record on all graded
items in the course, along with my three TAs who will offer their input. 
I will be far more interested in what you understand at the end of the semester
than what you understood at the half-way point of the semester.  I have been
known to ignore a very low grade early in the semester if you show you know
what is going on late in the semester.  I refuse to simply take your absolute
average and base your grade simply on that and ignore some of the rich raw
data that contributes to that average.

If you feel it would be helpful to discuss any of this with me one-on-one,
please contact me and we will set up a Zoom meeting.   

Finally, it is now Thanksgiving, and I want to wish all of you a happy holiday.
I hope you are paying attention to the guidelines for dealing with the pandemic.

Good luck with the rest of course.  ...and please stay safe.

Yale Patt