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Biol 3400: Vascular Plant Taxonomy: Grading

Assessment
Your performance in Bio3400 (aka, your grade), will be determined by your scores on weekly quizzes, the herbarium assignment, your collection, 2 midterms, and a final. Each midterm and the final will consist of two parts, one being practical, the other written.

Your course grade will be based on the points you acquire over the semester. They will be assigned as follows: Herbarium assignment 5%, Collection 15%, quizzes 10%, first midterm 10%,second midterm 22%, final examination (practical and written) 33%. There is one proviso here: to pass the course, you must obtain at least 60% of the top score on both the practical and the written portion of the course. In other words, you could fail the course with a 100% score for practical work if you earned less than 60% on the lecture final.

All tests are cumulative, which is one of the reasons that more weight it attached to the later tests. Another reason is that, in my experience, some students who start off doing rather poorly find that things begin to click towards the end. DO NOT COUNT ON THIS HAPPENING for you. It is less stressful, for both of us, if you do well from the word go.

Curving and other mysteries
I do not assign grades until I have scores for all parts of the course in hand, in other words, until after the final examinations and collections are graded. At that time, I take a look at the highest score and make a subjective decision as to the grade to assign it. So far, this has always been an A. In other words, I have always found myself considering that one student could be described as having been consistently excellent. I then calculate everyone else's score as a percentage of the highest score and use this to guide the assignment of grades, with 90% of the top score being A-, 80% B-, 70% C-, 60% D-, below 60% F. It is theoretically possible for all students to obtain an A. It is also possible for the top grade to be less than an A.

How do you know how you are doing? I shall report the top, bottom, and average score on all tests. Keep track of the top score and your score as a percentage of it. Encourage the top students to do so well that I feel compelled to award them As. I shall attempt to use WebCT as a means of helping you stay informed about your standing in the class.

If you ever have a question about my grading, please ask me about it. You can Email me to make an appointment or call (797-1584) to see if I am in. My office is in the herbarium (basement of the Junction).