Grades

Your grade for the course will be determined by a combination of factors weighted as indicated below. The grading scale will be fixed as shown. A good grade is something to be earned through hard work and dedication, and showing mastery of the material.

The minimum passing grade is a final total of 60.0%, including a laboratory grade of at least 60.0%. This cutoff is a bare minimum to pass. (59.9% is never a passing grade.) Failing laboratory grades are unacceptable. If you fail the laboratory, you fail the course as well.

Attendance is required in all Baylor courses. Excessive absences (25% or more, excused or not) will result in failure of the course. This is general Baylor policy. All absences count, excused or not. Attendance will be taken at lectures. If you have more than 10 recorded absences, you will fail the course.

You may view your grades on the Blackboard system. Homework grades can be viewed while logged into the CAPA system.

Hour Exams	35%		90.0 - 100.0	A
Comprehensive Final	15%		85.0 - 89.9	B+
Homework	25%		80.0 - 84.9	B
Laboratory*	25%		75.0 - 79.9	C+
			70.0 - 74.9	C
100%			60.0 - 69.9	D

^*Must have a passing laboratory grade to pass the course.

Grades are not "curved", except in these cases: lab grades in sections with an average below 85% will be normalized so that the average is 85%. Exam grades are similarly scaled so that just over 1/3 of the points on the exam are required to reach a minimal D (60%). This is done to account for the fact that working problems is more difficult in a timed situation. This rescaling is independent of the average grade on the exam, and so is not actually a curve in the usual sense. For both the labs and the exams, the rescalings are done so that scores of 0 and 100% are unchanged.