Posted Grades

This page provides a place for posting grades and comments pertaining to the grading of the assignments. For details on grading policies, please see the Grading section of the General Information page. For details on the requirements for individual assignments, please see the links to the assignments on the Assignments page.

The codes used to list the grades are those provided to me in your e-mail message for Part 1 of Assignment #1. If you neglected to specify one at that point, or if you wish to change the code I am using, simply send an e-mail to amgilder@cs.unh.edu indicating a new code.

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A Note on Final Grades

Throughout the semester, you will receive grades for the work that you submit. As the semester progresses, these grades will be posted above. At the end of the semester, I will use these grades to determine the actual letter grade you earned for the semester.

Although you will undoubtedly hear me describe it several times in class, the method which I use to accomplish the assignment of letter grades seems to cause students a great deal of confusion. Therefore, in the interest of full disclosure, I will lay out the entire process here and hope that this helps to eliminate some of the surprises.

First, however, I need to dispel some common misconceptions:

• It is possible to get an A in this course, and it is possible to get an F. Most people, however, will get something in between those two extremes.
• Final grades are not negotiable. The only circumstances under which I will even consider changing a grade that I have assigned would be the student demonstrating to me a significant error in my recording of the individual grades on which the final grade was based. However, the fact that these grades will have been publicly posted for much of the semester prior to final grade assignment should alleviate this necessity.
• There are no “magic numbers” or thresholds in my grading. I make no guarantee that a particular numeric average will correspond to a particular grade.
• Final letter grades are based strictly on the grades you have earned throughout the semester. Final grades are NOT based on any of the following considerations:
  • How much time or energy you invested in the course work (except insofar as that time and energy is reflected in the quality of the work you submit);
  • How much you feel you have learned from the course (except insofar as that learning is demonstrated by the quality of the work you submit);
  • At what point you are in your studies (freshman, senior, non-trad, etc.);
  • Your motivation for taking the course (elective, major requirement, etc.);
  • Your personal strengths and weaknesses (such as not being a good test taker or having a particularly hard time with technical topics);
  • The various difficulties you have faced and overcome during the semester; or
  • Any other mitigating circumstances.
  That’s not to say that these issues are unimportant. They may be extremely important considerations during the semester. They simply have no direct bearing on the assignment of final letter grades.
  In fact, I am always willing to discuss any of these issues and help you to work out strategies and solutions for dealing with them at any point during the semester. However, at no point during the semester will I wave my hands and magically change your grades as a result. Therefore, it’s very important that you contact me sooner rather than later so that I can assist you in improving your future grades, since there’s nothing that can be done with the grades you’ve already earned. And when it comes time to assign final letter grades, I will do so without regard to any of these considerations.
  If you have a documented learning disability, I will be happy to work with you and the ACCESS Center to develop an approach that will facilitate your learning process. But it is extremely important for you to communicate this fact to me in writing at the beginning of the semester. The longer you wait, the less I will be able to do to assist you.
  And, of course, I am always willing to explain the details of how I arrived at your grade after the semester has ended. I will not, however, change it.

So, in short, when I assign final letter grades, I do so by considering the grades you have earned throughout the semester; no more, no less.

The first step is to calculate a numeric average for each student in the section. This average is calculated by applying the weightings described on the General Info page to the recorded grades for the semester.

Next, I sort the section roster into descending order based upon the students’ semester averages and calculate the average of these averages to give me the section average.

Using the section average, I decide where to place the dividing line between those students who will receive a B- and those who will receive a C+. In general, I will use the class average as this dividing line. However, if I feel the section as a whole performed exceptionally well, I may establish this dividing line at a score less than the section average.

Once the dividing line is established between B- and C+, I look at the students whose averages place them at the top of the ranking and decide what grade I feel they have earned. Generally, this will be an A, but it may be an A- or even a B+ if I feel circumstances warrant.

Then, I look at the students whose averages place them at the bottom of the ranking and decide what grade I feel they have earned. The hardest decision I must make for these students is whether or not to assign an F. According to the University grading guidelines an F is intended to indicate “academic performance so deficient in quality as to be unacceptable for credit.” Therefore, when deciding whether or not a particular grade should be an F, I must ask myself the question:

Do the objective measures I have of this student’s performance (that is, their numerical grades) demonstrate a level of mastery of the course material that I feel justifies their receiving credit for the course?

And if the answer to that question is “no,” then I am obliged to assign a grade of F. While it is never pleasant to assign a failing grade, as an educator I have a responsibility to a larger community that takes precedence over individual situations, and when I assign grades I must fulfill that responsibility.

If the answer to the question is “yes,” then I must decide what level of passing grade the student has earned. Generally, this will be something in the D range for those students who pass at the bottom of the ranking.

Having established these three “milestones” at the top, bottom, and middle of the ranking, I work through the list looking for logical places to establish the other dividing lines. Whenever possible, I try to establish these dividing lines in places where they will not separate students whose performance differs negligibly.

In general, I find that while this approach does not always result in every student getting the grade for which they had been hoping, it does result in an allocation of grades that is well-distributed and fair. And while it may not always seem that the grade you receive is fair to you as an individual, I am confident that the grades I assign using this method are fair to you in the bigger picture as a member of the section and the University community as a whole.