Test #1 grades

Your Test #1 grades are now available in Blackboard, with two exceptions:

  1. You haven’t had your Test #1 interview yet, but you’ve been in touch with me to schedule it. Your grade will appear some time after your interview.
  2. You did not include your student ID card in your scan. To get your Test #1 grade, please take another photo or scan of the first page of the test that you submitted, with your name, EMPLID, and written work visible, and with your student ID placed on top of the page. (For this step, you may submit a JPEG or PDF file.) Use the same upload link that you used to submit your test: upload here. Your grade will be added to Blackboard after I receive your photo/scan.

Graded work

Later this weekend, you will receive an email with a link to a Dropbox folder. This is the folder where all your work during the semester will appear after it’s been graded. Your work has personal information on it, so keep this Dropbox link handy for the rest of the semester, but don’t share it with anyone else. You will be able to view the contents of this folder but you won’t be able to edit it; it’s just for me to return your work to you (we’ll continue to use file requests for you to submit your work to me).

Inside this folder is a PDF copy of your graded Test #1 (unless you didn’t include your student ID in your scan, in which case, you’ll have to wait until you submit it according to the directions above). This copy has feedback in different colors:

  • red ink indicates usual feedback and scores for individual questions,
  • pink ink indicates the notes I took during your interview (if any); some of these notes are specifically for you and some are just notes to myself, which you can read too,
  • blue ink at the top of the first page indicates the score for your written work (as a percent), the score for your interview (out of 2), and your overall Test #1 score (which is circled); (one or two of you already had lots of writing on your first page, so scroll until you find the blue ink on a later page),
  • green ink indicates that you didn’t include your student ID in your scan…but you won’t see this until you submit it according to the directions above.

A handful of you submitted your work late. In these cases, a penalty was applied to your written work grade. For Test #2, there will be a more explicit and stricter policy outlining the penalty for late work.

Comments

Overall, I thought your tests looked pretty good! I hope having the flexible timing, use of your notes, and second attempt worked for you. It’s clear that many of you are taking this course seriously and giving it everything you can. Keep up this effort!

  • I really enjoyed getting to talk to each of you and getting to know you just a little bit during the interviews. I even got to see some of your faces for the first time! I know you’re all very busy; many of you are working full time and taking classes…which is a tricky combination even when you’re not trying to survive a global pandemic and related crises. Good for you.
  • The interviews were hit or miss. I know this was the first interview of this type for many of you, so nobody expects it to be perfect. I do hope you all have a better idea of what the expectations are so you need to do better next time. I’m only asking questions about stuff that you wrote…so you need to be able to answer them. For many of you, the questions really focused on Why did you do this? or Where did this come from; how does it follow from what you wrote above? Just copying work from similar examples that you’ve seen won’t help you answer these questions, so make sure you really understand everything you’re writing. If you’re not sure of why something is true, you can always ask before the test! And don’t forget to use your test to prepare for the interview.
  • I’d said in this post back in August, that the method of integrating factors wouldn’t be covered in class but that you may use it if you like. Some of you really went for it with this method, but you ended up having to write waaaaaaay more than you would have with a different method. It was painful for me to read so I’m sure it was painful for you to write! In contrast, most people who used the methods we discussed in class were able to solve their equations much more quickly and easily, so I recommend staying away from using methods not discussed in class on future tests.