You are teaching an introductory science course in which students are graded on four labs, their participation in discussion topics, and a final examination. You allow students to drop their lowest grade on a lab. You also provide bonus grades to students who act as moderators for discussion topics. If a student does not submit a lab, you leave it ungraded and treat ungraded items as a grade of 0.
You set up grade items and a Labs category with the following properties:
Labs | Lab 1 | Lab 2 | Lab 3 | Lab 4 | Discussions | Moderator | Exam | |
Category | Labs | Labs | Labs | Labs | Labs | None | None | None |
Maximum points | n/a | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 100 |
Weight | 50% (for entire Labs category) | |||||||
25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | |||||
Bonus | n/a | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Drop lowest | 1 |
You assign the following grades for the student Frank Catcher:
Labs | Lab 1 | Lab 2 | Lab 3 | Lab 4 | Discussions | Moderator | Exam | |
Frank Catcher | n/a | 0 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 71 |
You release the calculated final grade to Frank. It is calculated as follows:
Grade item | Calculation |
Lab 1 | = Dropped
Note: Dropped grade items are not included in calculations; grades are calculated as if the item does not exist. |
Lab 2 | = 8/10*25/(25+25+25)*100
= 26.67% towards the category = 26.67*.5 = 13.33% towards the final grade Note: Lab 1 is worth 33.33% of the Labs category even though it is assigned a weight of 25%. This is because the lowest lab grade is dropped and there are only three labs contributing to the category. |
Lab 3 | = 0/10*25/(25+25+25)*100
= 0% towards the category = 0*.5 = 0% towards the final grade See the note for Lab 1. |
Lab 4 | = 7/10*25/(25+25+25)*100
= 23.33% towards the category = 23.33*.5 = 11.67% towards the final grade See the note for Lab 1. |
Discussions | = 8/10*10
= 8% towards the final grade |
Moderator | = 3/5*5
= 3% on top of the final grade Note: Bonus items are added to the final grade after other calculations. Do not include a bonus item’s weight in your total when balancing your gradebook. |
Exam | = 71/100*40
= 28.4% towards the final grade |
Calculated Final Grade | = 13.33+11.67+8+3+28.4
= 64.4% |