As advertised on the Faculty information sheet handed out in the first lecture of every Science course, course credits are accumulated into course components and each component is assigned a percentage weight. Some examples are:
Assignments 30% Tests 40% Assignments 25% Midterm Exam 30% Project 50% Midterm Exam 25% Final Exam 40% Final Exam 10% Final Exam 50%
For example, suppose a course is broken down into term work and exams in the following proportions and a student receives the indicated grade points on each component:
Components Weights Student GP ------------ ------- ---------- Assignments 10% 3.8 Term Test #1 25% 2.3 Term Test #2 25% 0.5 Final Exam 40%
( 3.8 * 0.10 ) + ( 2.3 * 0.25 ) + ( 0.5 * 0.25 ) = 0.38 + 0.575 + 0.125 = 1.08
In the Department of Computer Science a formal policy of assigning letter grades (or grade points) to each component prior to this weighted computation has been in effect for some time. It is contrary to Department policy for an Instructor to use numeric values, and in particular percentage points, in the weighted computation of the overall grade.
It is my personal policy to conform to this regulation, but I do extend this somewhat. Rather than assigning formal letter grades (or their equivalent grade point) to each component, I assign grade point values to the nearest tenth of a grade point in an attempt to reduce the effect of "roundoff errors". Therefore, course components in my courses are assigned grade point values in the range 0.0 to 4.3, in possible increments of 0.1.
Each exam or item of course work will be assigned a grade point value (to the nearest tenth of a grade point) after it is graded and if it represents a complete course component. Anything that doesn't represent a complete component will receive numeric grades until all parts of the component are complete. At that point the sum of all numeric grades within the component will be used to determine the grade point (to the nearest tenth) that will be assigned to the component.
While exams are often equivalent to complete components of a course, assignments and term work are not. Therefore, grade points for individual assignments will not be used. Instead, assignments receive numeric grades and after all assignments have been graded by TAs at the end of term, a grade point for the assignment component will be computed based upon the sum of all numeric grades received relative to a maximum total grade.
In my courses grade points for any component are obtained using a linear algebraic transformation that requires a 50% for a minimum pass (D) and 65% for an average grade (C). This reflects my personal opinion that to minimally pass a course a student should learn half of the material, and that an average student should learn 65% of the material to be in a safe position to continue. Extrapolating from this in each direction, the following transformation table is derived and may be used to estimate a letter grade for individual numeric grades (or any sum thereof):
Anything less than 35% will be equivalent to a letter grade of F and a grade point of 0.0. The grade point for a course component is always computed to the nearest tenth of a grade point. In fact, the computation used to determine the grade point for an individual component is defined using the Pascal statements:95% = grade point 4.0 (letter grade A) 80% = grade point 3.0 (letter grade B) 65% = grade point 2.0 (letter grade C) 50% = grade point 1.0 (letter grade D) 35% = grade point 0.0 (letter grade F)
where the "grade" is the total numeric grade received and the "maximum" is the maximum possible grade for the component in question. Equivalently, the following C code does the same job:percent := ( grade + scale ) * 100.0 / maximum; gp := trunc( (percent - 35.0) / 1.5 ) / 10.0;
grade = grade + scale; gp = grade * 100.0 / value; i = (gp - 35.0) / 1.5; if (i < 0) i = 0; else if (i > 43) i = 43; gp = i / 10.0;
A "scale" factor is often applied to exams. It is usually the difference between the maximum possible numeric grade and grade received by the student(s) that performs the best on that exam. This insures that the student(s) who performs the best receives at least a grade point of 4.0 for that exam component. This serves to rectify some problems when exams are unpredictably difficult.
This transformation from a percentage to a grade point may appear to be rather harsh on the higher end, when one considers that some instructors at this institution translate much lower percentages into an equivalent letter grade of A. However, students in my courses regain something in the computation of an overall grade using course components, because the weighted grade points required in the assignment of the overall grade for the course at the end of the session are as follows:
Also note that this University has no formal policy on the transformation of percentage grades into grade points. In fact, the University Calendar states that it "will not undertake any official conversion or equation ... with any percentage or other grading systems".A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D 3.85 3.50 3.15 2.85 2.50 2.15 1.85 1.50 1.15 0.85
Don S. Bidulock