EXAMS

• For each exam, each student should bring a #2 pencil,a calculator for numerical calculation (Graphing calculators are permitted; cell phones, PDAs and computers are NOT permitted) and a picture ID.
• All baseball caps or brimmed hats must be removed or turned backwards; remove caps or hats that cover ears.
• Headphones and unauthorized earpieces must be removed during exams.
• All exam questions are multiple choice. Exam questions will be both numeric and conceptual, e.g. true/false, less than/greater than equal to, ranking, direction of vector, etc. Midterm exam 2 will have one modified* problem taken directly from mid-term exam 1. Midterm exam 3 will have one modified* problem from midterm exam 1 and one modified problem from midterm exam 2. These modified* problems could be multi-part.

Off-campus Proctored Exams

• If you are living or traveling far from the MSU campus at the time of the exam, beyond a reasonable commuting distance, or if you are traveling with an MSU-sponsored program, you may be able to arrange a proctored off-campus exam. Arrangements must be made well in advance of the exam. Requests made after the deadline will not be accommodated and you will have to take the exam on the MSU campus. Click here for deadlines and details for arranging off-campus exams.

Midterm Exams

• There will be three fifty-minute midterm exams. The exams are closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 x 11 inch or smaller sheet of hand-written notes and equations (you may use both sides of the sheet).
• There are no makeup exams. However, if you miss a midterm exam for any reason, you will be allowed to drop this exam and the midterm portion of your final grade will be based on the other two midterm exams. Only one midterm exam will be dropped. If you take all three midterms, your lowest midterm exam score will be dropped when calculating your final grade.
• At least 10% of the points on each midterm exam will come from modified* homework problems or bonus questions.
• The midterm exams will have a correction exam assigned as a homework assignment in Lon-Capa. 30% of the positive difference between the correction exam and the in-class exam will be added to your in-class exam score as bonus. As such, the correction exam homework assignement can only add points to your midterm exam score. Only students taking the original exam will have access to the correction exam. The correction exam will be available at noon on the day after the scheduled exam and will be due at the regular homework due date/time the follwoing week.

Final Exam

• There is no correction exam associated with the final exam.
• There will be one cumulative 2 - hour final exam. The exam is closed book, but you may use four 8-1/2 x 11 inch or smaller sheets of hand-written notes and equations (you may use both sides of the sheets) -- one sheet for each of the midterms and the last sheet for the material covered after the third midterm. The final exam will not be dropped -- it is University policy that students missing a final exam will receive a grade of 0 for the course.
• At least 25% of the points on the final exam will come from modified* midterm exam problems or modified* homework problems/bonus questions from the last two homework sets.
• Grading scales for exams will not be curved unless there was mis-wording or an error.
• This is the first semester using a new set of online lectures which I will be preparing throughout the semester. For this semester only, I am offering up to five extra credit points to be added to your final exam score for finding any errors in the online lectures. The errors must be something wrong on the slide specific to the physics or calculations. Only one student will receive credit for each error found. To receive credit, the student must post on the message board the slide number/time in the lecture and a description of the error. Only the first student posting this information about a given error will receive one bonus point. These bonus points will be added to your final exam score at the end of the semester. Total bonus points for finding errors will not exceed five. The deadline for receiving bonus credit is the same as the deadline for the homework set associated with the online lecture.
• Missing the final exam: In the case of missing the final exam, the MSU policy is: "A student absent from a final examination without a satisfactory explanation will receive a grade of 0.0 on the numerical system, NC on the CR-NC system, or N in the case of a course authorized for grading on the P-N system. Students unable to take a final examination because of illness or other reason over which they have no control should notify the associate deans of their colleges immediately."

*-- Modified could mean that if the original problem gave x and asked for y, the modified problem might give y and ask for x. For conceptual problems, modified could mean covering the same concept.

Physics 231C Home

Last updated: August 26, 2014