Course Grading
Final Grades
- Guaranteed Grades
-
| |
|
|
86.6% – 90% |
B+ |
|
76.6% – 80% |
C+ |
|
66.6% – 70% |
D+ |
| $>$93.3% |
A |
|
83.3% – 86.6% |
B |
|
73.3% – 76.6% |
C |
|
63.3% – 66.6% |
D |
| 90% – 93.3% |
A- |
|
80% – 83.3% |
B- |
|
70% – 73.3% |
C- |
|
60% – 63.3% |
D- |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$<$60% |
F |
- Curves
- If necessary, the grading criteria may be curved to improve the class's overall scores.
Attendance and Participation
- Attendance
- While attendance is not graded, lectures will include regular homework help, graded quizzes, and in-class discussions and demonstrations of the subject material.
- Participation
- While participation is not graded, it is an integral part of each class that can help you learn the material.
Homework (11 in total, 15% of grade)
- When
- Assigned roughly once a week (see course schedule at the end of the syllabus).
- What
- Analytical problems that can be solved by hand.
- Why
- Homework is intended to guide you through course material and present you with questions that will require time to think about and complete (unlike quiz or exam questions). Homework assignments are not meant to be completed in a single day.
- Grading
- Homework is graded on a scale from 0 to 3. The meaning of each grade is:
| $>$ 75% correct |
3.0 |
|
45% - 55% correct |
1.5 |
|
$<$ 30% correct |
0 |
| 65% - 75% correct |
2.5 |
|
35% - 45% correct |
1.0 |
|
|
|
| 55% - 65% correct |
2.0 |
|
25% - 35% correct |
0.5 |
|
|
|
- Late policy
- Late assignments not be eligible for $(0.5)x$ points, where $x$ is the number of days late, for up to $2$ weekdays. For example, if you receive a $2.5$ for an assignment and submit the assignment $2$ day late (assignment due on Thursday, you submit on Monday), the final grade will be a $2.5 - 1 = 0.5$. After $2$ weekdays, the homework is assigned a $0$.
- Submission
- Homework is due in the course locker \emph{before} 5:00 PM on the due date.
Quizzes (7 in total, 15% of grade)
- When
- Occur roughly once every two weeks (see course schedule at the end of the syllabus).
- What
- Three or four short analytical problems similar to examples on the course website.
- Why
- These quizzes are intended (1) to help you, the teaching assistants, and me assess your current understanding of course material and (2) to widen the course's grading scheme and lower the stakes of each exam.
- Grading
- Quizzes are graded on a 20-percentage scale. Of the 7 quizzes, only the best 5 quizzes will count toward the final grade.
- Makeup quizzes
- There are no makeup quizzes.
Exams (3 in total, 50% of grade)
- When
- There are three non-cumulative exams covering each part of the course and one cumulative final exam (see course schedule at the end of the syllabus).
- What
- Similar to quizzes except longer and slightly more challenging.
- Why
- Exams are an opportunity to show what you know about signals and systems.
- Cheat sheets
- Exam 1 & 2 & 3: you may bring one double-sided 8.5 by 11 inches (or smaller) cheat sheet. Final exam: you may bring three double-sided 8.5 by 11 inches (or smaller) cheat sheets.
- Grading
- Exams are graded on a 100-percentage scale.
- Makeup exams
- Each part of the final exam acts as a re-take or make-up exam. If you perform poorly on an exam, you will have the opportunity to take one or more final exam parts to replace your grade(s). You will receive the highest grade from each midterm/final part pair (i.e., midterm 1/final part 1, midterm 2/final part 2, midterm 3/final part 3.
Lab Assignments (5 in total, 20% of grade)
- When
- There will be three labs assignments and two mini-lab assignments (no lab reports required) during the course. Each lab will correspond to one part of the course. Lab reports are due \emph{before} the next lab starts. See the schedule on the course website for details.
- Lab Hours
- Labs are open and supervised every week during the designated day and time in your schedule. In the first week of each new lab, you begin your experiments with the help of your teaching assistant. In the remaining weeks, lab hours may be used to continue, finish, or retry experiments. Lab hours may also be used to ask the teaching assistants for help on writing your lab reports.
- What
- In each lab, we apply signals and systems theory to a particular application. Labs assignment will be completed individually or in a group depending on the availability of equipment. Each student will submit an individual lab report about the methods and results applied and explored during the lab.
- Why
- Lab assignments and lab reports allow you to apply concepts from class to particular applications, and allows you to practice communicating engineering work to a technical audience.
- Lab reports
- For each full lab, you will be asked to write a partial or complete report of your work. Long, confusing reports will not be eligible for as many points as well-written reports. See the "Lab Report Guidelines" for each lab.
- Grading
- Lab reports are graded on a $100$-point percentage scale. See ``Lab Report Guidelines''for each lab for the complete grading rubric.