Your final grade will be based on grades earned in the homework assignments and the 3 in-class tests and a final exam. The relative weights for the tests, the final exam and the average of your homework grade are listed below. The final exam is cumulative and will be administered the last day of classes during final exam week. This semester I will not offer make-up exams, instead if you miss an exam and a valid excuse is presented for missing the exam, see below, the final exam score will be substituted for your missing test score. Valid excuses need to be documented and have to be due to illness, or serious accident preventing you from taking the test on the date it is administered. Valid excuses are NOT planning a trip during the exam, regardless of when the trip was planned, work schedule conflicts, personal issues such as appointments with doctors for you or your immediate relatives, forgetting to wake up in time etc. If you would like to utilize this replacement policy you must first check with me before or soon after you miss the test. There will be no opportunity to make-up a second test. If you miss two or more tests only one will be replaced by the final.

The final grades is tabulated from an absolute scale and not curved. This is done to foster cooperation between students when learning the material. Thus you are highly encouraged to help each other, particularly when working on the homework. Find a partner in class and work on HW problems together. Helping others learn tends to help with your own understanding. .

A participation credit will be included in the final grade calculation and will amount to not more than 5% added as a bonus over and above your total course grade. There are no curves applied to the final grade.