Grading scheme

Your grade in this course will be computed using the following formula:

The final exam is common to all sections. Note that a student must score at least 40% on the final exam to pass the course, regardless of the grade computed by the above calculation. The final examination will not be weighted more heavily for students with a higher score on the final than their term mark, although some allowance may be made for students who perform much better on the final examination than they did during the term. (In practice, this rarely happens; the criterion will be set by the Instructor-in-Charge and applied uniformly across all sections.)

Scaling and final exam marking

Because MATH 101 is a multisection course, the grading scheme includes the following structure to ensure fairness and consistency across all sections: distributed marking of the final exam and scaling of term grades to match the final. In brief:

Mark Mac Lean, who has been an Instructor-in-Charge for MATH 101 and other courses in the past and who is now the Undergraduate Chair of the Mathematics Department, has shared his perspective on grades and grading, which will give you a very detailed understanding about grades and how your professors look at them. The last page goes into more detail about distributed marking of the final exam and scaling of term grades to match the final.

Special circumstances

If you miss any homework assignments, the midterm, or the final exam, you should read our page on missed assessment. In no circumstance can a student have 100% of their assessment based on the final examination. A student who has not completed a substantial portion of the term work (for example, a student who misses the midterm and most Webwork assignments) will not be admitted to the final examination.

If you wish to have a midterm carefully re-read the relevant information on the in-class-midterm page; we will only consider requests that follow the procedure outlined there.

A student who wishes to view their final exam for pedagogic purposes may initiate this process by filling out the appropriate Mathematics department form. Note that this viewing of a final exam cannot change the grade of a final exam (except in the case of an obvious addition or recording error). Requesting a regrade of a final exam would be done at the university level by initiating a review of assigned standing procedure.

There is no mechanism by which a student can increase their assigned grade in the course after the semester (no “extra assignments” or the like). Please do not ask your instructor about such possibilities; the time to take responsibility for your performance in the course is during the semester.