Pre-exam "final" grades are posted

 Pre-exam "final" grades are posted

Your grades are all posted and released, and they should reflect most grade book corrections requested via mgt341ga@yahoo.com up to this point. Changes pointed out since 6 p.m. Friday should take effect by Monday morning.  Students should not delay in identifying any unaccounted for hotseat credit, assignment point, or other grade components.

With the exception of clicker points, all grade recording problems should be addressed to the TAs before 12/6 at mgt341ga@yahoo.com. Email me personally at fogelman@albany.edu regarding any clicker point questions you have.  If you are one of the small number of people who have failed to check the weekly clicker points report and just now discover you have no clicker credit, EMAIL ME YOUR CLICKER NUMBER AND INDICATE WHICH CLASS YOU ARE IN.  I will look up how many points that clicker earned and instruct the TAs to post your credit.  Of course, students and former students are always welcome to contact me regarding ANY concern associated with this course or other matters.

(Column “C Blackboard Contribution” includes your total points on assignments 1-10, along with liaison points if any—up to a maximum of 10.  The column named "E Clicker points to add" reflects 0.091 course points per click up to a maximum of 10.01 course points for students who registered 110 or more clicks. There were 121 all together.)

As predicted during the term, grades have been adjusted to increase the relevant class average to B+.  The final curve factor is 1.03, so each student’s term grade has been boosted by 3% of itself. Your actual earned grade appears in the row titled “F Raw Term Grade (A+B+C+D+E).

Following this raw term grade is a column labeled “Final Letter Grade.” It displays the letter grade you received.  Though a flaw in the Blackboard software prevents us from displaying your adjusted percent grade, the letter grade is based on that higher calculated value: 103% of your raw term grade.

A FINAL GRADE SHOULD CHANGE ONLY IF SOMETHING OCCURS TO INCREASE ONE OR MORE OF ITS COMPONENTS, THE MOST LIKELY REASON BEING IMPROVED PERFORMANCE ON ONE, TWO OR THREE OF THE "SECOND CHANCE" FINALS TO BE GIVEN ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9 AT 8 A.M. Since students could earn up to 30.01 “free” points in addition to an extra five points on each exam, and since overall grades have now been raised another 3% beyond what was earned including all those free points, there is no need to  ask for a higher letter grade if your new one falls just short of the next cutoff point. In a number of cases, the letter grade awarded is already two intervals higher than the one that was actually earned before the curve.

SOME CALCULATED GRADE VALUES WILL NOT BE VIEWABLE FOR SEVERAL HOURS, EITHER DURING THE DECEMBER 10-11 WEEKEND OR ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 12.  I SUPPRESS THESE RESULTS AT THAT TIME IN ORDER TO PREVENT CONFUSION WHILE FINAL EXAM GRADES 1b, 2b, AND 3b ARE BEING UPLOADED AND THEIR ASSOCIATED TERM AVERAGES AND LETTER GRADES RECALCULATED.

If you want to verify the grade and curve calculations, there are two ways to do so.  (1) You can click here to use the spreadsheet created for this purpose, or (2) you can run the numbers yourself using the formula first outlined on page 3 of our syllabus:

Compute your Actual Term Grade by adding…

   75% of your exam average, plus

   Total assignment points including liaison bonus (maximum = 10), plus

   Hotseat points (generally 0 or 5), plus

   Total clicker points times .091 (to a maximum of 10.01), plus

   Quiz total (maximum = 5).

Multiply the resulting Actual Term Grade by 1.03 and locate that product on this table, from page 3 of the course syllabus you received on August 30:

Grades:
92-100+	A		77-79	C+
90-91	A-		73-76	C
87-89	B+		70-72	C-
83-86	B		60-69	D
80-82	B-		Below 60	E

(As was noted early on and throughout the semester, final grade percents ending in .5 or higher--not .4999--are rounded up to the next whole number.  Also as indicated, the 60% limit dividing and E-grade from a D-grade may be adjusted downward.)

Good luck to those who will be taking our final (Exams 1b, 2b, and/or 3b). If I won't be seeing  you in our last class or at the exam—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9 at 8 a.m.—I wish you the best in your other courses and all your future endeavors.

Prof. M. Fogelman