MY POLICIES
Once
you are in the classroom and the class is in session, please be courteous.
Please, avoid walking out of the class, except for an emergency visit to the
bathroom. You must not use your cellular phone, talk, or in general disrupt the
class. Mobile phones, pagers or other devices that emit alerting sounds
or make noise should be deactivated or switched to the vibrating mode. Texting
and sending messages of any sort is absolutely prohibited during quizzes and
exams. I presume that all of you are interested in securing the integrity of
our course. Please do what you know that it is right to do. You are paying to
learn not to get a grade only.
Please
check after each lecture the “Suggested problems for home study”
page. I post some problems from the textbook that I recommend to work on. DO
NOT read solutions of problems from solutions manuals. Try to solve them first.
I am focusing on concepts and not on actual numerical results. For this purpose
I must be able to see your work and your thought process in every piece of
coursework. The “Suggested problems for home study” will be
activated on Tuesday. For every other recommended resource for this course a
link will be generated in this page.
We
will follow the departmental syllabus in general, but I may not completely
follow the list of suggested problems. We will also start with Chapter 2
instead with Chapter 1. We will return to Chapter 1 before we start exploring
the statistical data analysis.
During
an exam or a quiz please make available to me your driver's license or a
passport or a Cougar id with a photo or even a credit card with a photo. If you
don’t produce a picture id your grade may not be credited to you, until
we will be able to verify your identification. Should you need to use the
bathroom during an exam or a quiz please let me know before you leave the room.
The use of data storage devices, books, tables, or notes is not allowed during
exams and quizzes, unless I explicitly change this policy. However, and for
your convenience you can photocopy the formulas behind the cover and back pages
and the first and last pages of the textbook.
Each
time you solve a problem in a test or for a homework assignment you
have to show ALL your work and justify your answer. Plain answers in problems
will not be considered at all, even if the question is of multiple choice
type or short-answer type. A correct solution must show how you approached and
worked an assigned problem. Solutions containing only formulas will not
receive full credit. Partial credit is always given for solutions that may not
be complete, but indicate that some work towards the correct direction has been
done. In addition, for the Statistics course the final conclusions must be
interpreted in layman’s language.
Check
my office hours in my welcome page.
Attendance
will be occasionally observed. Those, for whom I don't have attendance records,
or have very few attendance records will be dropped without warning.
Participating only in exams will not be sufficient for passing a course. Up
to 3 absences will be automatically excused. Should you have more
absences you should justify to me the reasons for these absences, otherwise you
may be dropped from the course, without prior warning. In addition, the grades
of the all the quizzes that you have missed will be set to zero. If you want to
be excused for an absence please contact me!
Quizzes can be handed out any time during class. Most of the time, in
each quiz you should expect only one problem from the list of problems
suggested for home study or from the a ssigned homework. If a quiz problem is
also a homework problem then failure to score over 40% in this
quiz problem will void your grade in the entire homework
assigment.
Grades: Approximately 8 quizzes, each one giving 10pts in average, two midterms, M1 and M2 of 100 marks each, for a total of 200 marks. Below Q stands for the total quiz marks, H for the total homework points and B for the total bonus points (see bonus policy in 10). Total stands for the maximum cummulative pointsa staudent can make in this course, excluding bonus points.
Homework is worth a variable number of points. Not all problems in a homework are graded. We normally select a set of 4-5 problems in a homework which we deem important for you to learn, and grade them. You must work on ALL homework problems, even if you can't solve all problems. Attempting a problem automatically makes you eligible for some partial credit for this problem. Problems suggested for home study are not necessarily the homework problems. Once you submit a homework, you are obligated to present your solution to me on the board if I ask you to do so. Failure to demonstrate that you have an adequate understanding of your homework solution(s) will void your homework(s).
Final
grade at this point is 100(Q + H+M1 + M2+B)/[Total]
The
final exam is optional. If a student
chooses to take the final then the following grade calculation scheme applies:
The grade of the final exam, is denoted by F and is out of 200
marks.
Final
grade calculation:
Set
100(Q + H+M1 + M2+B)/[(1.2)Total] = Tavg.
If
F > 1.8Tavg, 100(F + best of {Q,M1,M2}+B+H)/[Total]
If
F <= 1.8Tavg, 100(F/2 + best two of {Q,M1,M2}+B+H)/[Total]
To be eligible for
bonus points you must get at least 30 in each of the two mideterm exams.
You may withdraw
form the course at your request with a “W” until the last day to
drop a course, normally about a month before the last day of classes.
Bonus
policy: Bonus marks are
added to your grades. There is no bonus for homework.
If you score over
7 in three consecutive quizzes you receive 4 pts.
If you score over 72% in each of exams 1 and 2 you get an extra 10% on the sum of your grades in both exams.
The second midterm
is scheduled on the last day of classes. The day of the first mideterm will be
announced in due time.
Grading scale: <45 is F, >=45 is D-, >=50 is D, >=60 is C,
>=70 is B-, >=75 is B, >=88 is A.