Mid-Term Examination Return

Mid-Term Examination Return

ENG 335: SF as Social Criticism

Fall 2008

There seems to be some confusion regarding the presentation of scores on the mid-term. This is due at least in part to our running out of time during class as I returned the evaluated examinations. I’ll do my best to resolve any confusion through the following explanations:

1. The score at the top of the first page is simply your score on the matching portion of the examination. It provides a total out of 150 possible points, then the percent correct, then a letter grade based on the percentage scale provided in our course policies. More about percentages and letter grades in #4 below.

1. Your grade on the entire examination is listed in the box that contains the individual scores for each section of the examination added together, then presented as a total out of 300 possible points followed by a percent correct and a letter grade. It looks like this:

Total: 130/150 + 40/50 + 91/100 = 261/300 = 87% = B+/A-.

The word, “Total,” is the clear designator that this is your total score on the test.

1. The first score is your total on the matching; it should reflect the score at the top of page one of your test; the second score reflects my evaluation of the short essay that you wrote after completing the matching; the third score totals the evaluations of the two short essays that you wrote on the second day of the examination.

1. In the example above, the letter grade is B+/A- because on our scale 85% is a B+ and 90 percent is the lowest A. The B+/A- means that the person’s total point score is between the two grades, which provides a more precise understanding of where the student stands relative to the examination score than would a rounding off of all letter grades based on absolute binary oppositions like A or B+, B or C+, etc…In the above example, the student knows that the score is 9 points short of the lowest A, so that strong attendance/participation, for example would move the student’s current course grade average to an A.

For all of our assignments and grade components we work on the following scale: 90% = A, 85% = B+, 80% = B, 75% = C+, etc…

1. Here is the grade distribution of the examination with the split grades placed in the category closest to the percentage value [87% in B+ but 89% in A, for example]: A+[6], A [4], B+ [5], B [3], C+ [4], C [9], less than C [10].

In almost all cases, those scoring at the low end of the scale missed 10 or more of the matching, significantly reducing their chances to earn a top score on the examination.