Last updated 2009 December 7
Course grades
Computing the course grade
You will receive a letter grade for each of the following items.
Report 1 20% Report 3 20%
Report 2 20% Take home test 40%
The unix command courseInfo 4313 [2009-10 W]
will display your grade record for the course. If there are any errors please
let the course instructor know.
On marks and marking
- A numerical score on a paper or exam is never "out of" anything;
It is never interpreted as or converted to a percentage.
It is the sum of scores assigned to questions, occasionally individually
adjusted where appropriate.
- Marks are never "belled" or "curved", in the sense of being adjusted
to approximate a normal distribution.
They usually aren't normally
distributed anyway in statistical terms and I know of no statistical
transformation such as normalization, arc sin, or log which would make the
scores more meaningful and/or accurate.
- You can't "lose marks" for anything - you didn't have them to begin with.
- I assign letter grades to numerical scores on a basis which I feel
is both fair and reflects the meaning of each letter grade as
determined by the York Senate and published in the York Undergraduate
Programmes Calendar and
copied below for your convenience.
- Only the letter grades have meaning;
the numerical scores are used to compute the letter grade in cases
where there are many questions or problems in a single piece of work.
Numerical scores are not retained in my files after letter grades
have been assigned.
- Marks are not a judgement on your intelligence or diligence or good
intentions; they are just a reflection of the work you handed in.
If you were very busy with other work, or recuperating from an illness, or
emotionally stressed, it would be not be surprising if your mark was
lower than under optimal conditions. However, a reason does not function as an
excuse and does not provide a basis for altering the mark, which is a description of
what you did, not why you did it.
Remarking a piece of work
You may resubmit a piece of work for reevaluation within 14 days of the return of
the work to the class. For reevaluation resubmit the work together with
a note explaining precisely what parts have been under or over evaluated with
supporting rationale. It is insufficient to just ask for a work to be reevaluated. You
should also read any comments and solutions that are made available before submitting
your work for reevaluation.
The entire work will be reevaluated, with particular care to
those parts you point out. Your grade may go down, it may remain the same
or it may go up. You may resubmit the request to the instructor at a class.
Guide to the meaning of letter grades
The following is a guideline to the grading scale used. It is a copy
of the York University official grading scheme. The first number within
the parenthesis is used to combine individual grades into a single grade.
When grades are combined exact integers may not result so the range following
the first number within parenthesis maps back to the letter grade.
A C grade means doing only what was asked for, a B grade means doing
a good job on what was asked for, and an A grade means doing a good job
and showing originality. Originality in the undergraduate environment means
doing things that were not explicitly asked for but are useful additions
or extensions of the work - doing things above and beyond the call of duty.
A+ (9 - 8.5 .. 9) Exceptional - Thorough knowledge of concepts
and/or techniques and exceptional skill or great originality in the use
of those concepts and techniques in satisfying the requirements of a piece
of work or course.
A (8 - 7.5..8.4) Excellent - Thorough knowledge of concepts and/or
techniques together with a high degree of skill and/or some elements of
originality in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
B+ (7 - 6.5..7.4) Very Good - Thorough knowledge of concepts
and/or techniques together with a fairly high degree of skill in the use
of those concepts and techniques in satisfying the requirements of a piece
of work or course.
B (6 - 5.5..6.4) Good - Good level of knowledge of concepts and/or
techniques together with a considerable skill in using them in satisfying
the requirements of a piece of work or course.
C+ (5 - 4.5..5.4) Competent - Acceptable level of knowledge of
concepts and/or techniques together with considerable skill in using them
to satisfy the requirements of a piece of work or course.
C (4 - 3.5..4.4) Fairly Competent - Acceptable level of knowledge
of concepts and/or techniques together with some skill in using them to
satisfy the requirements of a piece of work or course.
D+ (3 - 2.5..3.4) Passing - Slightly better than minimal knowledge
of required concepts and/or techniques together with some ability to use
them in satisfying the requirements of a piece of work or course.
D (2 - 1.5..2.4) Barely Passing - Minimum knowledge of concepts
and/or techniques needed to satisfy the requirements of a piece of work
or course.
E (1 - 0.5..1.4) Marginally failing
F (0 - 0..0.4) Failing