NOTE: In reporting the averages from the test we drop the lowest scores. This is because 20% (1 out of 5) of all scores will eventually be dropped. In comparing your average with the class average you need to compare with an average which is representative of the final average. Dropping the lowest scores before reporting the average is one way of estimating the effect of the final drops. GBA 1st test 178 students took test 1 30 made below 45 148 scored 45 or more for those 148 the average was 73.2 2nd test 142 students took test 2 36 made below 40 106 scored 40 or more for those 106 the average was 59.1 3rd test 130 students took test 3 30 made below 35 100 scored 35 or more for those 100 the average was 62.3 4th test 108 students took test 4 21 made below 35 87 scored 35 or more for those 87 the average was 60.4 5th test 102 students took test 5 13 made below 35 89 scored 35 or more for those 89 the average was 62.7 Pre-Exam average 118 students have taken 4 or more tests for those 118 here are the averages: HW 6.63 (out of 10, 2 HW's remaining) quiz 14.51 (out of 20) (Adams' sections 14.91) ( others 14.15) demo 3.85 (out of 5) test 59.99 (divide by 2 to get #points) overall 54.99 Assuming 2 more HW points for the remaining two turn-in opportunities and 9 points out of 15 on the final results in a predicted average of 66. With this predicted average a possible breakdown of grades would be: 47 - 59 D 59 - 73 C 73 - 85 B You should figure your pre-exam total then figure how many exam points (out of 15 possible) you need to get the grade that you want. Final Average 104 students took 4 or more tests plus the final exam for those 104 here are the averages: HW 8.0 (out of 10) quiz 15.6 (out of 20) demo 4.1 (out of 5) test 64.2 (divide by 2 to get #points) exam 8.2 (out of 15) overall 68.0 (out of 100) Note that 14 students who had taken four or more tests elected not to take the final exam. As a result the quiz, demo, and test averages for the 104 who took the final were higher than the pre-exam averages for those same categories, and the overall average was higher than the predicted final average. Still we felt it would be somewhat unfair to raise the predicted cutoffs. So basically we used the predicted grade breakdown with some small alterations to find the gaps in the grade distribution. Here is the final scale: 46.7 - 58.9 D 58.9 - 73.0 C 73.0 - 83.0 B Letter grades were assigned strictly according to this scale. The highest E is 44.5, the lowest D is 46.8; the highest D is 57.0, the lowest C is 59.0; the highest C is 72.1, the lowest B is 73.2; the highest B is 81.8, and the lowest A is 83.1. The smallest gap between levels is 1.1 points between C and B. Here is the final grade distribution for the 104 students who took the final exam.