Exams Grade

Each exam grade will be used in letter grade form only (the numerical grades are recorded but not used).

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your first exam letter grade is lower than those of the other two exams, that first grade will be thrown out completely. In that case, your exams grade will be the average of your second and third exams. This, coupled with the fact that most of you will get an A on the homework, typically makes an enormous difference in the course grade for many students.

By the way, though, please note that this policy of course does not imply that you should not try very hard on the first exam, for many reasons:

• It might turn out that you do very well on the first exam, better than one of the other two, so you definitely would want to have the benefit of that first high grade.

• Even though Exam I is the only exam which I guarantee that I will throw out if the other two have higher letter grades, I alsomay throw out Exam II or III. If someone does quite well on Exams I and III, for instance, but poorly on Exam II, I may either greatly reduce the weight of Exam II for that person or even throw out Exam II entirely.

• When a student asks me for a recommendation to an employer, or asks me to write a letter for graduate school, I take ALL exams into account.

Exam grading is noncompetitive( there is no ``curve''), so it is possible for everyone to do well.