GRADING POLICY
MTH 251

Grades:
Your grade consists of two parts, an exam grade and a recitation grade.
Midterm 1, Midterm 2, Final, Final
Thus, if you do better on the final than on one of the midterms, then that midterm doesn't count. Note that the final counts twice, so that a poor final still counts (at least) once, and that the skills test counts as 10% of your exam grade and cannot be dropped.
If your recitation grade is satisfactory, that's it. If your recitation grade is unsatisfactory, your course grade is lowered one step, from A− to B+ to B to B−, etc. (The one exception is that a solid A will not be lowered.)
Recitations:
There will be a group activity most weeks during recitation. Most activities will involve some sort of presentation at the end of class, a written summary due the following day, or both.
A grade of satisfactory requires participation in all but two of the group activities.
Participation in turn requires attendance, including on-time arrival, not leaving early, and turning in required written work on time. If you miss a recitation, you are strongly encouraged to complete the activity on your own and discuss it with us afterwards, but you will not be given credit for participating in that activity.
Homework:
Except during exam weeks, several homework problems will be assigned no later than the beginning of each week. You should bring your written solutions to the recitation period. Usually, only one of these problems will actually be corrected in detail.
A satisfactory homework grade requires all but two assignments to be turned in on time.
Your overall homework score counts as the equivalent of a single recitation, that is, failure to obtain a satisfactory homework grade reduces the number of allowed absences from recitation from two to one.
Exams:
There will be two midterms and a final. All exams will be closed book. The use of (both sides of) a 3×5 index card of notes as well a graphing calculator is permitted. The final is comprehensive, and will be roughly half on old material and half on new material.
The index cards are cumulative: you may bring all previous cards to all subsequent exams.
Skills Test:
There will be a skills test during Week 8, requiring (only) the computation of a number of derivatives. No calculators or notes will be allowed for this test, and there will be minimal partial credit. A single scheduled opportunity to redo this test will be provided during Week 10 outside of class; only the better result will count.
Absences:
Absences for whatever reason are normally covered by the ability to drop the lowest exam grade and to miss up to 2 recitations. If you are absent from more than the allowed number of exams you will normally receive a grade of F. If you miss more than the allowed number of recitations, this will reduce your course grade as noted above.
Makeups:
Makeup exams will only be given in truly exceptional cases. There will be no makeups of the group activities, although it is usually possible to arrange to participate in another section the same day.
Cheating:
My policy on cheating can be found here.