GRADING INFORMATION

Composition

The final score in this course will be based on quizzes, homework, midterm exams, and the final exam. Each of these items will count as follows:
Quizzes: 15%
Homework: 20%
Midterm 1: 13%
Midterm 2: 13%
Midterm 3: 13%
Final Exam: 31%
Note that the weights add up to 105%.
The final exam plays also the role of a subject exam within the departmental graduate degree requirements.

Grades

The final grade for the course is going to be tied to the net score in the course, calculated as above. A separate grade will be given for the final exam alone.

Homework

Weekly homework assignments, see the schedule, will be due at the Wednesday lecture, for the material from the preceding week. Late homeworks may be accepted on individual basis only, for a reduced credit. In most likelihood, not all, but randomly chosen problems will be graded.

Exams

There will be three midterm exams and final. Exams will be closed book and closed notes. You will be expected to remember the important equations and how to use them. You should bring along a simple calculator, that has no capability of storing and recalling formulas. No other electronic devices can be used at the exams. Hats are not allowed at the exams either. Documented medical (or other) excuses for one midterm exam will be considered on a case by case basis. Resolution may involve a make-up written or oral exam. The MSU Final Examination Policy states that Students unable to take a final examination because of illness or other reason over which they have no control should notify the assistant deans of their colleges immediately and A student absent from a final examination without a satisfactory explanation will receive a grade of 0.0.

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Article 2.3.3 of the MSU Academic Freedom Report states: “The student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards.” In addition, the College of Natural Science adheres to the policies on academic honesty specified in General Student Regulation 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades ; the all-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades; and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations. (See Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide and/or the MSU Web-site www.msu.edu .)

Therefore, except as explicitly specified below, you are expected to complete all course assignments, including homework and exams, without assistance from any source. You are expected to develop original work for this course.  Also, you are not authorized to use or facilitate for others the use of the www.allmsu.com Web-site, to complete any course work in this course. Students who violate MSU rules may receive a penalty grade, including but not limited to a failing grade on the specific assignment or in the course.

You can seek and provide assistance concerning involved physics and strategies in solving homework problems. You can discuss details of a problem with others, as long as every party involved in the discussion significantly contributes to the discussion of that problem. At the end, however, every person involved in the discussion needs to write up own solution to the problem. Under no cricumstances, you can give away, or seek others to give away, outright problem solutions, reducing the learning experience for the recipient of that solution to zero. Excessive similiarities between submitted works will be flagged and scores for their submitters may be reduced to zero. Persistent offenders may be further subjected to a penalty grade as indicated above. If you are in doubt whether a particular form of assistance or cooperation is acceptable, ask the teaching staff for the course.