[18335fall08] midterm exams vs. final grade

[Steven G. Johnson]

Hi gang,

Several of you have contacted me with concerns that you may have done  
badly on the midterm, and were worried that you might have to drop the  
class even though you have put a lot of work into it.

I wanted to reassure you that, as long as you do well on the homeworks  
and on the final project, you should get a decent grade (B or higher)  
even if your performance on the midterm was an outlier.

Unfortunately (and this has happened to me before, the first time I  
teach a new course) I got too ambitious on the midterm and as a result  
your performance on it may not be representative.  That means that  
when I assign letter grades a simple numerical average won't be  
sufficient; I'll look at your overall work in the course.

Drop date is November 19, two weeks from yesterday.  Your exams will  
be graded by next week sometime; feel free to contact me if you want  
to discuss things further.

--SGJ