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This page includes policies and procedures shared by all four tracks. In addition to this information, track-specific policies will be announced for your track only. (An example is what happens if you miss a midterm.) Check with the instructor, TA, or web site for your track if you have questions.
Your grade in this course depends upon the following course elements, each of which has a point value towards a possible total of 400 points:
In theory the total number of points used in this scheme is 400. At the end of the term in each track a constant will be selected, the "Eleanor Quotient" (abbreviated "EQ"), roughly equivalent to the second-highest total point score for all students in that track. Each student's term grade will be established based on what percentage it is of EQ.
To pass this course, your point total needs to equal at least the floor value for the D category in your track. For example, if EQ is 370 points out of 400, then the lowest possible D would be 45% of 370, or 167. In the table at the right you can change the value of EQ to see the resultant floor values for all letter grades. (UCSD does now allow plus or minus on the grade of D. Although the grade of A+ is recorded and appears on your transcript, it figures in your GPA as a regular A.)
For your convenience we will announce an "EQ value" for each of the midterms, for sections, and for the final exam, so that you can calculate an advisory letter grade to see how you are doing by using the interactive table at the right. But your final term grade will be based only on your total number of points for the whole term, compared to the term-end EQ value for your track. It will not be based on an average.
There is no way to anticipate the value of EQ for any given exam or for the term as a whole until it is known what the highest scores turn out to be.
No. There is no limit on the number of students who may receive any given grade (and hence no "curve," no "quota system," no "competition" for high grades). We feel that this policy encourages students to study together over the quarter and help each other understand the material.
However for your general information this scheme has tended over the years to produce roughly the same distribution among term-end passing grades that the campus as a whole has experienced since about 1970, viz.: 30% A, 40% B, 25% C, 5% D (not counting F, W, P, IP, etc.).
In general, violations of Academic Integrity will be severely sanctioned.
Section scores count for up to 80 out of the 400 points possible for the quarter's work. How the 80 points available are associated with section activities varies by TA. The section points will be allocated twice: Up to 40 will be awarded at the mid-point of the quarter. And up to 40 will be awarded at the end of the quarter. By dividing section credit in half this way, you will know how you are doing before the quarter ends.
This is in fact rarely a problem, and the wise reader would skip to the next section of this page rather than worrying about it.
However it has happened occasionally, and in that case a formula is applied to adjust all section grades insofar as possible to a common standard before they enter into term grades.
In 1998 a labor action raised the possibility that section grades or other information kept or calculated by TAs might not be available at grading time. In 2003 and 2007 wildfires in this region closed UCSD for several days. In the event of unforeseen events of this kind, the professor reserves the right to base your course grade on the information available, and the total point count may be adjusted accordingly.
No. It is true that professors in some courses —usually small ones— are willing to make up a different final exam for students in that situation. However we do not do this in MMW. Creating a MMW final is too time-consuming to make "finals-on-demand" a feasible option.
Theoretically, this cannot happen, since the Registrar schedules exams based on the time your classes meet and does not permit you to register for classes that meet simultaneously. If one of your instructors moves a final exam, you should know that the Academic Senate provides that a student has a right to take the final exam at the time scheduled by the Registrar, and the professor is required to provide an exam at that time if a student requests it.
Final exams should be available for pick-up in at the Roosevelt College Writing Program Office (not in the professor's office or the TAs' offices) by opening time, Wednesday, December 16, 2009. The exams will be available there on into next quarter, so most students find it convenient to pick them up after the winter break. Note, however, that the university will be officially closed from December 19 through January 3.
If you wish, we can mail your final exam to you after it has been graded. If you would prefer that, please provide a large-sized, pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope. (The exam will be too thick to fold conveniently — think of it as looking like a magazine.) Assume the postage to be a dollar. The exam will be mailed as "special 4th-class educational materials (corrected student papers)." If you merely want to know your grade, you can find it through TritonLink, or using the on-line gradebook if your track has one, or you can provide us with a pre-addressed, prestamped post card to be mailed to you as soon as the grade is known. Grades will not be accessible by Email.
Regulations of the Academic Senate specify that all grades except "Incomplete" are final when filed by an instructor in the end-of-term course report. The correction of a "clerical or procedural error" is authorized, but no change of grade is permitted "on the basis of reassessment of the quality of a student's work," and "no term grade except Incomplete may be revised by re-examination." Further, except in extremely rare circumstances, no university official or committee is permitted to change a professor's grade.
TAs officially assigned to a course are routinely expected to assist in grading (which may be done only by them and/or the instructor). However, the instructor (and only the instructor, not the TA, not the Provost, not the Writing Program) is officially responsible for a student's term grade.
If you take an incomplete ("I") — nearly always a Very Bad Idea — it is up to you to file appropriate forms, pay appropriate fees, etc. Check with the Writing Program staff for procedures.
Yes. The grade of D brings you four units of credit and fulfills the MMW requirement at ERC. There are a few additional details, however:
The Academic Senate has defined the final exam as mandatory for this course. Under Senate rules, failure to take a final exam results in a course grade of F even if other scores in the course would theoretically total to a higher grade than that.