Strictly speaking, there is no curve, so you are not competing against your fellow students. I encourage you to study together and learn from each other! However, if grades don't turn out as I expect, then I'll consider whether an assignment was more difficult than I intended and adjust the grades accordingly (usually by making a hard problem extra credit). Per SCC policy, you need 70% to get a C, which is the minimum grade necessary to qualify for a later course.
Here are the letter grades:
| A+: | at least 95%; |
| A: | at least 90% but less than 95%; |
| B+: | at least 85% but less than 90%; |
| B: | at least 80% but less than 85%; |
| C+: | at least 75% but less than 80%; |
| C: | at least 70% but less than 75%; |
| D: | at least 60% but less than 70%; |
| U: | less than 60%. |
There will be up to 18 homework assignments, worth 25% in total. There will be 8 quizzes, worth 20% in total; your lowest two quiz scores will not count towards your grade. The midterm exam and the final exam will each be worth 25%. The remaining 5% will come from attendance; arrange absences with me ahead of time to get full credit. Nothing else contributes to your grade. There will be no extra-credit assignments, although there will be extra-credit problems on some of the homework assignments.
Somtimes you will be required to show some of your work; make sure that you read and follow the instructions! To get as much credit as possible, it's good to explain your answers as clearly as you can, even when the instructions don't specifically ask you to. If you can convince me that you know what you're doing, then you'll get some credit. But if it looks as if you pulled an answer out of thin air, then you won't get credit.
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