3.4 Grading

Grades will be included with assignment feedback, which will be disseminated through Github’s Issues tool. At midterms, Lecture-17, and finals, I will upload a summary of all assignment grades to a new Issue on GitHub.

All grades that use a “check” system (the lecture preps, labs, and some aspects of the final project) will be calculated using the following approach. A “check-plus” represents excellent work and will get full credit. A “check” represents satisfactory work and will get 85% of the points available for that assignment. A “check-minus” represents work that needs substantial improvement and will get 75% of the points available for that assignment.

I use a point system for calculating grades. The following table gives the weighting and final point totals for all assignments for this course:

Table 3.3: SOC 4650 and 5650 Points Breakdown

Assignment	Points	Quantity	Total	Percent
Participation	25 pts	x2	50 pts	10%
Labs	10 pts	x14	140 pts	28%
Final Project	310 pts	x1	310 pts	62%

All feedback will include grades that represent number of points earned. If you want to know your percentage on a particular assignment, divide the number of points earned by the number of points possible and then multiply it by 100.

Final grades will be calculated by taking the sum of all points earned and dividing it by the total number of points possible (1,000). This will be multiplied by 100 and then converted to a letter grade using the following table:

Table 3.4: Course Grading Scale

GPA Letter Percent 4.0 A 93.0% - 100% 3.7 A- 90.0% - 92.9% 3.3 B+ 87.0% - 89.9% 3.0 B 83.0% - 86.9% 2.7 B- 80.0% - 82.9%

GPA Letter Percent 2.3 C+ 77.0% - 79.9% 2.0 C 73.0% - 76.9% 1.7 C- 70.0% - 72.9% 1.0 D 63.0% - 69.9% 0.0 F < 63.0%

Borderline grades (i.e. a grade within half a percentage point of the next highest letter grade) will be rounded up before final grade submission at the end of the semester. A grade of 89.6% would therefore be submitted to SLU as an “A-” while a grade of 89.4% would be submitted to SLU as a “B+”. The final grade report will include both the original letter grade and the rounded letter grade if applicable.

No chances will be given for revisions of poor grades. Incomplete grades will be given upon request only if you have a “C” average and have completed at least two-thirds of the assignments. You should note that incomplete grades must be rectified by the specified deadline or they convert to an “F”.