Final Exam Grades and Office Hours

By now, most of your are probably aware that I have posted your grades for exam 3 as well as your cumulative semester average to BlackBoard.I have included columns indicating the grade for each exam you took before any extra credit was added as well as columns showing adjusted grades. You should also be able to see you semester average and the final letter grade for the course.

In assigning letter grades, I used the rubric indicated in the syllabus:

Letter grades for the course will be assigned on the following scale:
90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
60-69 D
59 ↓ F

I also allowed for rounding, assigning As to students whose averages were at least 89.5, Bs to those with averages of at least 79.5, and so on.

After adding the extra credit, including the five points added to everyone's grade for the shared attendance opportunity on the last day of class, and the rounding of final grades (which is the equivalent of adding another 1.25 points to everyone's third exam grade) roughly 15% of students earned an A, 38% earned a B, 27% earned a C, 10% earned a D, and 2% failed. This grade distribution is substantially similar to those you will find for most other sections of POLS 206.

I very much appreciate the effort many of you have put into the course this semester. I especially appreciate those of you who have come to see me personally over the semester to discuss how to get the most out of the course and to prepare most effectively for exams. Ultimately, though, your grades must be based on your performance on the exams rather than on the volume of your efforts. So, I cannot make any further adjustments to grades. In particular, I cannot offer additional extra credit opportunities or opportunities to perform additional graded work to individual students that were not offered to the class as a whole during the semester.

For those of you who would like to review your exams, talk about the course, or discuss any other final matters with me, I will be holding one last set of office hours. I will be available on Thursday from 10:00AM-12:00PM and from 2:00PM to 3:30PM. I will also be available on Friday from 1:30PM until 3:00PM. All of these office hours will be held in my office in the political science department,( room 2117 in the Allen Building).

Thanks for a great semester everyone.