There will be two non-comprehensive exams. The exam dates are provided on the course schedule and the course syllabus. This guide will discuss the exam pass requirement and how exams are graded.
Pass Requirement
The exam pass requirement assesses that students understand the underlying concepts required to meet the learning outcomes. The requirement is stated as:
Exam Pass Requirement: Students must earn a passing exam average on either Exam 1 or Exam 2. The exam average is calculated as the original exam attempt averaged with the highest retake attempt. Unless otherwise specified, a passing exam average is a C letter grade (74% or higher). Students only need to pass one of the two exams.
Based on the standard grading scale used by this class, the average of the original and retake grade must be 74% or higher to meet this requirement. Students must earn a passing grade in only one of the two exams, not both.
Students that failure to meet 1 or more of the pass requirements will have their letter grade capped to C– maximum, regardless of whether they have a higher letter grade in Canvas. See the course syllabus for details.
Grading
Each exam category includes the following grades:
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Original Exam Score: This is the score earned on the original exam attempt (including any code snippet questions), which is taken during lecture. See the exam logistics guide for details.
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Retake Exam Score: This is the highest score earned of all asynchronous exam retake attempts completed before the deadline. See the retake logistics guide for details.
The category grade is the average of the above scores. The instructor usually does not curve the exam grades beyond offering the retake opportunities.
For example, suppose a student earned a 68% on the original exam attempt. The student retook the exam three times, earning a 72%, 93%, and 89% on each retake attempt. The exam category score will be the average of the 68% from the first attempt and the highest 93% retake attempt, which works out to a passing score of 80.5%. That score meets the exam pass requirement.
Cheating
There is a no tolerance cheating policy for exams. Any instance of cheating on an exam, regardless of whether the “Regret Clause” is invoked, will result in the following consequences:
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The instructor will file a report with the Academic Integrity Committee of the incident.
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The student may not use any score earned for the original or retake attempts of that exam category to meet the exam pass requirement.
To help combat cheating, the exams use randomized variants of most questions. The instructor also inspects the Canvas session log of the exam to detect coordination between students.
Therefore, when it comes to cheating, students should consider:
- You don’t need to cheat; you have many opportunities to meet the exam pass requirement.
- You don’t want to cheat; the consequences of cheating are worse than failing the exam.
- You will get caught; the instructor will be looking for it.
- It is hard to cheat and you do not have the time for it.
Cheating is fundamentally unfair to you, your classmates, me, and anyone that places value in your degree.