Grading FAQ
===========
When will the final grades be announced?
----------------------------------------
About a week after the final exam, give or take a few days. The grades
for a course are usually calculated and submitted for review no later
than three days after the course's final exam. After the grades are
reviewed, they are submitted to the registrar, who will then inform
you of your grade for the course.
We will email you as soon as your marks are ready and available to be
seen. Email asking when the marks will be ready is usually ignored.
Can I see my final exam?
------------------------
Yes. Extra office hours sometime after the final exam will be
announced. You are strongly encouraged to review your final exam to
check that there were no marking mistakes.
You are not allowed to take your final exam. We are required to hold
onto it for at least a year.
How is my final numeric score calculated?
-----------------------------------------
For every assessed activity in the course (see your course marking
scheme), you are given a numeric mark. When all your marks are entered
into the `gradebook <https://courses.cs.sfu.ca/>`_, a final numeric
grade is calculated using the weights given in the course marking
scheme.
For example, suppose your course has this marking scheme:
10% Labs
30% Assignments
15% Midterm
45% Final
And suppose that you earn these marks for each activity:
Labs: :math:`\frac{15}{20}`
Assignments: :math:`\frac{55}{65}`
Midterm: :math:`\frac{24}{30}`
Final: :math:`\frac{54}{60}`
To calculate your final grade, your numeric marks are first converted
to percentages (rounded in the usual way):
Labs: :math:`\frac{15}{20}` = 75%
Assignments: :math:`\frac{15}{20}` = 85%
Midterm: :math:`\frac{24}{30}` = 80%
Final: :math:`\frac{54}{60}` = 90%
Then your final percentage score is calculated as a weighted average
of your activity scores where the weights are the percentages from the
marking scheme:
.. math::
:nowrap:
\begin{eqnarray*}
final\ grade & = & 0.10 \cdot 75 + 0.30 \cdot 85 + 0.15 \cdot 80 + 0.45 \cdot 90 \\
& = & 85.5
\end{eqnarray*}
So the final score is 85.5%.
How is my final letter grade calculated?
----------------------------------------
Generally, teachers set ranges that correspond to letter grades.
However, **there are no standard letter grade ranges** at SFU: ranges
differ from teacher to teacher and even course to course.
Here's one sample set of ranges (which is **not necessarily the range
used in your course!!**):
95% :math:`\leq` **A+**
90% :math:`\leq` **A** :math:`<` 95%
85% :math:`\leq` **A-** :math:`<` 90%
80% :math:`\leq` **B+** :math:`<` 85%
75% :math:`\leq` **B** :math:`<` 80%
70% :math:`\leq` **B-** :math:`<` 75%
65% :math:`\leq` **C+** :math:`<` 70%
60% :math:`\leq` **C** :math:`<` 65%
55% :math:`\leq` **C-** :math:`<` 60%
50% :math:`\leq` **D** :math:`<` 55%
**F** :math:`<` 50%
So if your final numeric score is 85.5%, then your final letter grade
would be an A- using these ranges. Again, this is only example of
letter grade ranges, and may not be the ones actually used by your
course.
A letter grade of **N** is assigned in cases where your work is
somehow incomplete, e.g. you don't write the final exam.
Does the GradeBook show the mark used to calculate my final grade?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes. The `current GradeBook <https://gradebook.cs.sfu.ca/>`_
does not make it easy to do things like round-up everyone's marks, or
add 2% to everyone's marks. Those sort of operations are done in a
spreadsheet, and the adjusted marks are not usually posted back to the
GradeBook.
How might my final mark be adjusted?
------------------------------------
The exact details will vary from teacher to teacher. Some common
adjustments, which may or may not be used in your course, are as
follow:
- Round fractional marks upwards.
- Lower the "out of" mark for an exam. For example, if a midterm exam
is out of 45 and the highest mark on it was 40, then a teacher
*might* make the midterm out of 40.
- Add a small bonus to everyone's mark in cases where a course was
deemed difficult.
Again, these are just examples of possible adjustments that a teacher
*may* do.
Are grades curved?
------------------
First, lets make sure we agree on what "curved" means. Grading on a
curve traditionally means that a pre-set number of letter grades are
chosen before the course. For instance, before the start of a course
graded on a curve the teacher might decide that there will be 3 A+s, 5
As, 10 A-s, 15 B+s, 10 B-s, etc. The good thing about this approach is
that the three people with the highest grade in the course --- no
matter their exact percentage score --- will get an A+. However, the
4th person will only get an A, even if they are within 0.0001 of the
third person.
This course is *not* graded on such a curve --- there is no pre-set
number of letter grades that will be given out. It is possible
(although extremely unlikely!) that everyone in the course gets an A+,
or everyone gets an F.
In large courses, it is often the case that the marks naturally form a
`bell curve <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution>`_
shape, with a few people getting very high marks, a few very low
marks, and most getting average marks in the middle.
What does "a passing grade on the weighted average of the exams" mean?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Some CS courses contain the following rule in their marking scheme:
*Students must attain an overall passing grade on the weighted
average of exams in the course in order to obtain a clear pass (C
or better).*
Essentially, this means that if you don't do well enough on the exams,
then your mark might be adjusted downwards to a C-.
Suppose, as an example, you earn the following marks in a course:
5% Assignment 1: :math:`\frac{8}{10}`
5% Assignment 2: :math:`\frac{33}{42}`
5% Assignment 3: :math:`\frac{20}{20}`
20% Midterm: :math:`\frac{28}{31}`
15% Project: :math:`\frac{45}{100}`
50% Final: :math:`\frac{60}{70}`
The midterm and final are considered exams, and the *weighted average
of exams* (*wae*) is calculated as follows:
.. math::
:nowrap:
\begin{eqnarray*}
wae & = & \frac{15}{15 + 25} \cdot \frac{28}{31} + \frac{25}{15 + 25} \cdot \frac{60}{70} \\
& = & 0.375 \cdot \frac{28}{31} + 0.625 \cdot \frac{60}{70} \\
& = & 0.87
\end{eqnarray*}
So in this example the weighted average of the exams is 87%.
It is up to the instructor to decide what exactly counts as a "passing
grade"; they might decide that a *wae* greater than 0.5 is a passing
grade, or they might choose some other criterion.
If your *wae* value is not passing, then the highest mark you can get
in the course is a C-. This is still a passing grade, but it is not
considered to be a **clear pass**. A C- might not be good enough to
let you automatically enrol into some future CS courses, i.e. you may
have to ask permission of the instructor.
Can you please give me a higher mark?
-------------------------------------
First, thanks for saying "please": some students are not so polite
when they ask for a higher grade!
Second, willingness to beg won't get you a higher mark. Your mark is
based on the work you do in the course and calculated according to the
marking scheme.
Generally, the only reason we'll change a mark is to fix an error,
such as an incorrectly recorded assignment mark. If you are worried
that an error was made in how your mark was calculated, then contact
your instructor immediately.
We will not change your mark for the following sorts of reasons (all
of which are real reasons students in the past have given for
deserving a higher mark):
- "If you don't give me a higher grade I will lose my scholarship!"
- "I worked hard!"
- "Okay, I didn't work that hard, but if I had I would have
gotten a much higher grade. Therefore I deserve a higher grade."
- "I always get higher marks than this!"
- "The course was too hard compared to course X where I got a high
grade, and so you should give me a high mark like I got in course
X."
- "I know I should have worked harder and come to get help from you or
the TA earlier in the course. But I didn't, and now that the course
is over you should just give a higher mark."
- "The marking scheme was unfair to me, and you should change it so it
gives me a higher mark."