Your final grade will be based on class work (including discussion section worksheets), homework, the night lab, one mid-term exam, and the final exam. These factors will be combined in the following percentages to determine your class grade:
| Homework | 30% |
| Discussion section | 10% |
| Night lab | 5% |
| Midterm exam | 25% |
| Final exam | 30% |
The total number of points available will be 1000, e.g., there will be 12 homeworks that consist of five 5-point questions each, for a total of 300, or 30% of the total. There may occasionally be extra credit (e.g., in discussion sections or the exams), but there will not be any make-up assignments. If you miss an assignment, you miss out on the points associated with that assignment. If you know that you will be absent for an exam, you must tell me in advance and give me written documentation of the reason (see below for valid reasons).
I will guarantee that you will receive no worse than the following letter grades for a given percentage of the total available points:
| A | 90-100% |
| B | 80-89% |
| C | 70-79% |
| D | 60-69% |
| F |  60% |
Note that the optional 
grading scale will NOT be used in this
course.
If the average class grade is low, I may increase your letter grade compared to this table, but will not decrease it.
The mid-term exam is scheduled for the date given on the accompanying class schedule. The exam will occur during the regular class lecture hour in the same room as the lectures. The final exam will be cumulative, drawing on all material covered by the lecture, discussion, and night lab, but will be weighted somewhat more heavily towards material covered after the midterm. The final will be given at the time, and in the room, listed in the University Schedule of Classes (also see bottom of accompanying class schedule).
Homework will be assigned most weeks and is to be turned in at the beginning of class on the Thursday that it is due (see the accompanying page that lists the homeworks). Homework turned in more than 15 minutes after the beginning of class on the due date will be considered late. Late homework may be turned in at the beginning of class the following Tuesday after the due date, at a penalty of a 30% reduction in score. On that Tuesday, we will return graded homework and hand out solution sets; no homework is accepted after that. It is expected that each homework assignment will take 2-3 hours to complete if you are attending lecture and are up to date on your reading of the text. Homework must be neat, readable, and stapled if necessary, with all work shown, justification given for answers as required, and with the units in all quantitative questions clearly indicated. Marks will be deducted for failing to adhere to these requirements. At times in discussion sections, written work will be given to be completed during the section, which will be graded, and should also be neat, etc. Some of these exercises may involve the use of equipment; others may involve problem solving in groups.
Finally, please note the grading structure of this class makes it mathematically impossible to get an `A' grade for the course without doing reasonably well on the homework, discussion section, and night lab. Typically students who do not do homework do not get better than a `C' course grade and often get a `D' grade or worse; don't count on being the exception.