Physics 2020: Fall '12

General Physics 2 (Electricity & Magnetism, and Optics)

MWF 11:00-11:50 Duane G1B20 (Section 100)

Exams and Grades

Final Exam is now graded, see below ....

EXAM 3 now graded, see below ....

EXAM 2 now graded, see below .

EXAM 1 is now graded, see below for details!

General information:

If you miss more than 1 lab, or the final, you can't receive a passing grade!

We will use iClickers during lectures, to help you learn the material. Your iClicker responses count only as bonus (extra credit) points: they REDUCE exam weight by up to a max of 14% of midterm exam total (i.e. 5% of your course grade).

Detailed course grade information is available here
For further information, please see the Syllabus.
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Final exam info:

More information about final exam (study guide, etc) is on this saved older page.Here is the histogram of results from the final:

The final exam had an average of 23/30 correct (77%), with a standard deviation of 15%, and a median of 24/30 correct (have did better than that, half worse)
- IMPORTANT: We don't assign letter grades to any individual exams. Only your total combined course score matters for your final grade!! (See the detailed grade info page for more info. In the end, it is your combined score, including homeworks and labs, that is all that matters gradewise)


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MIDTERM #3 info:
More information about exam 3 (study guide, etc) is on this saved older page.

Exam 3 was a little tougher than the second midterm (more similar to the first)
Hiere is a histogram of class results on exam #3:

Ex2 histogram

- IMPORTANT: We don't assign letter grades to exams. Only your total combined course score matters for your final grade!! (See the detailed grade info page for more info. In the end, it is your combined score, including homeworks and labs, that is all that matters gradewise) On average, people are doing much better on Labs and CAPA and homeworks than on exams, and they all average together. It's the total that matters, not individual exams!

- The average score was 72 out of 105 possible points, or about 69%. This is similar to exam 1 - and in my opinion, very reasonable given just how hard this material is!
- The median was just below 75/105, or about 71% (That means half the class scored above this)
- The "Standard Deviation" was 21%, meaning there's a moderately wide variation in performance (which is also quite normal at this point in the term)

- About 1/5 of the class scored 90% or higher, that's really rocking, congrats!
- A third of the class scored about 80%. This too is a really strong score...
- The average on the Multiple Choice section was 9/14 questions.
- The average on the written section was 25/35 possible points. All 3 pages were (roughly) equally hard for the class (although the last page was slightly tougher for most)
The percent correct overall was just a little higher than it was for the MC section.

If you are really unhappy about your score, please read this page. It has suggestions for concrete steps you might take. Also note the "I need help" link at the left side of all our course pages. After reading these, if you'd like to come see Prof. McElroy or Prof Pollock, check out the "Help Room hours" link, or the "contacts" link, or just email us, or visit before/after class.

If, after looking over your returned exam, you feel you were misgraded, take the following steps. Do not write anything new on your exam! First, look carefully at the online solutions (on D2L). Then, talk to your TA - show them what you did. They may be able to explain why we graded as we did. But if you still feel that some mistake was made, write a brief but clear note (on a SEPARATE piece of paper) and staple it to the exam. Give this to your TA, or directly to Prof. McElroy. He will look it over and decide what to do. (If you still have questions after all that, feel free to check with Prof. McElroy or Pollock in person!)

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More information about exam 2 (study guide, etc) is on this saved older page.

Exam 2 scores were really great. Good work! Here is a histogram of class results on exam #2:

Ex2 histogram

- The average score was 80%. This is good work, the test was not easy!
- The median was just below 84% (That means half the class scored above 84%!)
- The "Standard Deviation" was 15.5%.
- We don't assign letter grades to exams. Only your total combined course score matters for your final grade!! (See the detailed grade info page for more info. In the end, it is your combined score, including homeworks and labs, that is all that matters gradewise)
- About 1/3 of the class scored above 90%, that's really fantastic, congrats!
Well over half the class scored about 80%. Rocking...
- The average on the Multiple Choice section was 10/13 questions.
- The average on the written section was 25/30 possible points. All 3 pages were (roughly) equally hard for the class (although the middle question, from the lab where we added in an extra resistor, was the hardest, with an average of 74%
The percent correct overall was just a little higher than it was for the MC section.

If you are really unhappy about your score, please read this page. It has suggestions for concrete steps you might take. Also note the "I need help" link at the left side of all our course pages. After reading these, if you'd like to come see Prof. McElroy or Prof Pollock, check out the "Help Room hours" link, or the "contacts" link, or just email us, or visit before/after class.

If, after looking over your returned exam, you feel you were misgraded on the long answer portion, take the following steps. Do not write anything new on your exam! First, look carefully at the online solutions (on D2L). Then, talk to your TA - show them what you did. They may be able to explain why we graded as we did. But if you still feel that some mistake was made, write a brief but clear note (on a SEPARATE piece of paper) and staple it to the exam. Give this to your TA, or directly to Prof. McElroy. He will look it over and decide what to do. (If you still have questions after all that, feel free to check with Prof. McElroy or Pollock in person!)

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More information about exam 1 (study guide, etc) is on this saved older page.

The class did fine on exam #1. We are very pleased with this result - we felt it was a reasonably hard test, and the class as a whole did just fine. Here is a histogram of class results on exam #1:

exam1

"Adjusted" means that we dropped everyone's lowest multiple choice question, you got a "freebie" on that exam portion. (So, the exam was therefore out of a total of 95 possible points, 5 points each for 11 MC questions, and 40 points of long answer). The Adjusted score is expressed as a percent of those 95 points.
(If you got a perfect score on the Multiple Choice, congrats! Then we didn't drop anything, and just computed your score in the usual way, out of 100 possible points)

- The average score was 73%. This is good work, the test was not easy!
- The median was just below 76% (That means half the class scored above 76%).
- The "Standard Deviation" was 15%.
- We don't assign letter grades to exams. Only your total combined course score matters for your final grade! (See the detailed grade info page for more info)
- About 1/5 of the class scored above 87%, that's really fantastic, congrats!
- The average on the Multiple Choice section was 7.9/12 questions (but in the end, we dropped one missed one)
- The average on the written section was 30/40 possible points. All 4 pages were (roughly) equally hard for the class (page 1 was just a little higher scoring on average), and the percent correct overall was just a little higher than it was for the MC section.

If you are really unhappy about your score, please read this page. It has suggestions for concrete steps you might take. Also note the "I need help" link at the left side of all our course pages. After reading these, if you'd like to come see Prof. McElroy or Prof Pollock, check out the "Help Room hours" link, or the "contacts" link, or just email us, or visit before/after class.

If, after looking over your returned exam, you feel you were misgraded on the long answer portion, take the following steps. Do not write anything new on your exam! First, look carefully at the online solutions (on D2L). Then, talk to your TA - show them what you did. They may be able to explain why we graded as we did. But if you still feel that some mistake was made, write a brief but clear note (on a SEPARATE piece of paper) and staple it to the exam. Give this to your TA, or directly to Prof. McElroy. He will look it over and decide what to do. (If you still have questions after all that, feel free to check with Prof. McElroy or Pollock in person!)