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8.01 Weekly Quiz Results, Fall 1997

The passing grade for the Weekly Quiz average has been set at 65.0, and other numerical grades can be translated into letter grades according to the following chart:

A histogram of the grades is shown below:

HOW TO COMPUTE YOUR GRADE:

STEP 1: If you have taken all 9 of the Weekly Quizzes, then the lowest 2 grades will be dropped. Average the remaining 7, and call the result your "unrenormalized" quiz average. If you have any unexcused absences for the Weekly Quizzes, they count as quizzes taken with a grade of zero.

If you had excused absences from one or more of the 9 Weekly Quizzes, either because you entered the course after it started, or for any other reason, then the lowest 2/9 of your Weekly Quiz grades will be dropped. (That is, we didn't think it was fair to allow students who entered the course late to drop a larger fraction of their grades than the students who were here from the start.) A fraction of a quiz is "dropped" by counting it less in the average. For the precise formula, follow these links:

• If you took 8 Weekly Quizzes, click here.
• If you took 7 Weekly Quizzes, click here.
• If you took 6 Weekly Quizzes, click here.
• If you took 5 Weekly Quizzes, click here.
• If you took 4 Weekly Quizzes, click here.

STEP 2: Since evidently not all instructors grade in the same way, we are "renormalizing" the Weekly Quiz averages to account for the differences as well as we can. For this purpose, each instructor has been assigned a renormalization factor Q, which is used to multiply the points that were taken off. That is,

To say it in a language that's sort of like an IRS form, you can compute your renormalized grade by the following steps:

1. Subtract your unrenormalized grade from 100
2. Multiply the result by the factor Q appropriate to your instructor, obtained from the table below.
3. Subtract the result from 100 to obtain your renormalized grade.

TABLE OF RENORMALIZATION FACTORS:

The renormalization factors were computed earlier using only the results of the Review Quizzes, and then they were recomputed using a weighted average of the Review Quizzes and Final Exam. (The relative weights were 30 and 40 respectively, as used to compute the final course grades.) For each section, the lower value of Q (which leads to higher grades) was used to compute the final course grades.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED:

• The "Preliminary Weekly Quiz Results" are still available, if you want to look back at them.
• How were the renormalization factors Q computed?
• Do students in sections with 10 a.m. quizzes have an advantage over students with 11 a.m. quizzes?
• Is the renormalization of quiz grades fair?

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