[PHYS 3655-3656 Astrophysics]

[Virginia Tech Department of Physics]

PHYS 3655: Introduction to Astrophysics I
J. H. Simonetti

Check your Scores!

This page explains how you can see a listing of your Homework and Exam scores. Furthermore, histograms of the class's Exam scores will be posted on this page (look toward the bottom of this page).

To see a listing of your Homework and Exam scores, login to Blackboard at Virginia Tech.

In Blackboard, under My Courses, select this course from the courses you are enrolled in. Select the Tools button on the left of the screen that then appears. Then select the Check Grade link on the next screen that appears.

You should see a listing of your Homework and Exam scores for this course. You will also see a Class Average for each Homework assignment and Exam. (Ignore the Average Point/Assessment, Assessment Average, and Total Points shown at the top of the listing. Also ignore any weights displayed along with each score. These bits of information added by Blackboard are meaningless in this course.)

Note that you cannot see anyone else's scores.

Results for Exam 1

Each question on the exam 1 was worth 2 points, so the highest possible score would be 30.
Class average = 21.7
Standard deviation = 3.9
Median = 21
Highest score in the class = 29

Results for Exam 2

Each question on the exam 2 was worth 2 points, so the highest possible score would be 30.
Class average = 21.3
Standard deviation = 4.6
Median = 21
Highest score in the class = 30

Results for Exams 1 and 2 Combined (averaged)

Highest possible average score would be 30.
Class average = 21.6
Standard deviation = 3.9
Median = 21.5
Highest average score in the class = 28.5

The "Approximate Letter Divisions" shown below the histogram are just that --- "approximate." They would be indicative of the letter grades I would assign to everyone if the class ended after exam 2 (and I didn't count the Independent Research Assignments), although I use pluses and minuses.

At the end of the semester I don't average letter grades to get your final grade. Instead I compute a final numerical score for each person using the scores of the exams (weighting each by 30%), and the total score for the Independent Research Assignments (weighted by 10%). Then I decide on letter grade divisions based on a histogram of the final numerical scores. 

       |                                          X
    10 -                                          X    X
       |                                          X    X
       |                                          X    X
       |                                          X    X
       |                                          X    X
 #   5 -                                X         X    X
       |                                X    X    X    X         X
       |                                X    X    X    X    X    X
       |                           X    X    X    X    X    X    X
       |                           X    X    X    X    X    X    X
       |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|
       0         5        10        15        20        25        30   Score

       Approximate Letter Divisions:

                           |    D    |   C     |   B     |    A




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