MA125-A Fall 2008 Home Page

• We will cover up to and including Section 5.5
• You should read the assigned section(s) in the text, preferably before class
• For some sections, lecture notes may be posted. These ARE NOT a substitute for the text.
  • There may be material in the text that is not in the posted notes
  • There may be material posted that is not in the text

Policies

• College Policies
• Additional Instructor's Policies

College Policies

These include:

• Academic Honesty

  All members of the College community have the responsibility to be familiar with, to support, and to abide by the College's policy on academic honesty. This responsibility includes reporting known or suspected violations of this policy to the appropriate faculty member or to the Dean of the Faculty in the Office of Academic Affairs.

  Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following:

  • presenting another's work as if it were one's own;
  • failure to acknowledge or document a source, even if the action is unintentional (i.e., plagiarism);
  • giving or receiving, or attempting to give or receive, unauthorized assistance in an assignment or examination;
  • fabricating data;
  • submitting the same assignment in two or more courses without prior permission of the instructors; or
  • having another person write a paper or sit for an examination.

  (Page 108 of The Hill Book )

• Class Attendance and Makeup Work

  The policies listed under Class Attendance on page 108 of The Hill Book apply;

  Note in particular the following:

  • Students are expected to be regular and prompt in their class attendance.
  • In case of absence, students are responsible for all class work, assignments, and examinations.
  • Any student who misses an examination (other than the Final Examination), a quiz, or any required classroom activity to which a grade is assigned must consult the instructor as soon as possible regarding the opportunity to make up the work missed. In such cases, it is the instructor who determines whether or not the absence was legitimate;
    • if it was, and if the student has consulted the instructor as soon as possible, the instructor must give a makeup examination or quiz, or provide the student with an equivalent basis for evaluation.
    • If the absence is deemed not to have been legitimate, the instructor has the option to decide whether or not to provide an opportunity to make up the work.

  (Page 108 of The Hill Book - note exceptions for prolonged illness and conflicts with religious beliefs)

  My idea of legitimate absences includes:

  • Personal illness or injury (with proper documentation)
  • Obligations to one's family in case of illness or injury (with proper documentation)
  • Required participation in an athletic event (i.e., a scheduled game or meet, excluding practice)

• Examinations (final exam)

  The value of the final examination is determined by the instructor. If a student misses the examination without sufficient reason, a grade of F is given for this part of the course requirements. The semester grade is then determined in the same way as for students who took the examination.

  (Page 109 of The Hill Book)

Additional Instructor's Policies

• Homework Policy
  • Homework assignments are the foundation of MA125 and the key to success in it.
  • Graded material will only be returned to you in person.
  • If you miss a class in which graded material is returned, you must visit the instructor during regular office hours to receive that material.
  • Late homework assignments are subject to a 30% penalty.

• Quiz Policy
  • Quizzes may be given any time and will not be announced.
  • The low quiz grade will be discarded.
  • Graded quizzes will only be returned to you in person.

• Exam Policy
  
  • You are responsible for all material in sections of the textbook listed on the syllabus page, regardless of whether it is covered in class or not.
    Do not assume everything will be covered in class.
  • The sections to be covered on each exam will be posted in the syllabus or announced prior to the exam.

• Cell Phone Policy
  • Cell phones, IM, text messaging, cameras, and other communication devices are disruptive and distracting in the classroom environment.
    Their use will not be allowed.
  • If you bring any of these devices to class, please make sure that they are turned off when class is in session.

Basis of Grades

Some implications to consider:

• To do well in this course, you have to perform reasonably well on the exams, which comprise 500 of the 700 points
• You should be able to obtain a very high grade on the assignments portion if you are conscientious and hand everything in on time.
  This can offset minor deficiencies on exams and quizzes.
• On the other hand, if your asignments are poorly done or late, it will cancel out good exam
  performace to some degree. (together, quizzes and assignments comprise 2/7 or about 28% of your grade)

Assignment of Letter Grades

While I reserve the right to use a curve, you should NOT expect one.

Partial Credit

The process of assigning partial credit is somewhat subjective, but
I will use the following guidelines for individual problems:

On a 10 point problem,

• To get full credit:
  1. You must demonstrate that you know how to set the problem up correctly
  2. You must arrive at the correct answer
  3. All intermediate steps between 1) and 2) must be evident and valid
• A correct setup by itself is worth 6 points
  • The philosophy here is that if you can correctly set up every problem, but can't actually do any of them,
    you receive a grade that is passing, but unsatisfactory (the lowest possible D)
• If the setup is correct but the remainder is only partially correct,
  the credit will be something greater than 6 and less than 10 (a judgement call on my part)
• The above statement applies to a correct answer obtained by an invalid argument
• NO credit will be given for answer by itself (correct or otherwise) with no indication of how it was obtained
• Problems requiring solution by calculator will rarely appear on exams.
  A correct but purely numerical solution (i.e., obtained by calculator) to a problem that asks
  for an algebraic solution will be given 1/3 of the point value for the question (3 on a 10 point problem).

Exams will be designed so that a reasonably well-prepared student should be able to complete them without a great deal of time pressure.

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