Course Info » Exam Info

Exam Information

 

- There is more detailed grade information here.

- There is a detailed "learning goals" page here. This can be very helpful for studying/preparing for exams!

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There will be three midterms and a final:

 

Exam Rooms:

The final exam will be in Coors Event center. Our class will all be in the WEST SIDE of Coors.
Please see this map for the seating arrangment in Coors for our final.

We will arrive at 7 and set out exams, please sit where you find an exam. Grab a lapboard on your way in!

We will try to spread you out (and avoid the bleachers!) as best we can - we know Coors is not the most comfortable place to take a final, but we'll all do our best!

 

Keith Tauscher's students will sit in section 19

Adam Higuera's students will be in the upper dozen rows of sections 20 and 21

Ian Leahy's students will be in the lower dozen rows of section 20

Nick Pellatz' students will be in the lower dozen rows of section 21

Devin Rourke's students will be in section 22

Oscar Henriksson's students will be in section 23.

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Final exam results:

 

The final exam had an average score of 71% (that's 25/35 questions) A good strong average, once again well done!

Your score is posted on D2L, along with your total course grade.

 

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Information about the FINAL exam:

The final will be only multiple choice. Expect roughly half the final to be earlier ("cumulative") material, and roughly half on new material since the 3rd midterm (which means geometrical and physical optics, light and mirrors and lenses and slits!)

Bring a calculator, you might need it on a couple of problems. You can now have 2 full pages (front and back, hand-written) of your own notes. Here is the cover and crib sheet.

We have no extra practice exams this time, since you already have the three old midterms and all our old practice tests for all the cumulative material! There *will* be two practice opportunities in lab the final week - one will not be posted, it's a conceptual post-test that will help serve as practice and review of older material. You will do that one on your own - but your performance on it willl NOT count towards your lab grade) Then, there will ALSO be a practice test in the style of previous weeks - focusing on the newer material, which will be available ahead of time on the usual lab website, which you can work on in groups and talk through. Answers to *that* lab practice exam will not be posted until everyone has had a chance to take their lab (the last section is Thursday afternoon).

 

As usual, see our detailed "learning goals" page for more details about what is covered on the final/

 

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Results from the third exam:

Exam #3 had an average score of 74.5%, just like Exam #2. Nicely done!
The median was 77.5% (half did better than that, half did worse)
We do NOT assign a letter grade to individual exams. There is no point in doing so, since each exam is only a small fraction of your grade. (See below for what matters for figuring out your estimated course grade!)
Here is the distribution of Exam 3 scores:

 

If your score is lower than you were expecting, please see this link for some thoughts and suggestions (and feel free to meet with Prof. Martins, Pollock, or your TA to see how to do better next time)

Below is the much more important histogram: "estimated total course scores" (which factors in CAPA, Written HW, and Lab too)
At this stage, we assume your final exam score will be identical to your own average of Exam 1-3, as our "best estimation".
(So right now Exams 1-3 are still more heavily weighted in your total score than they will be in the end.)

See this link for our detailed information about how we assign grades. (It's also in the "Course Info -> Grade info" tab)
Here is the histogram of "estimated course score" as of Apr 18. Notice how much higher it is than Exam 3 alone ;-)

The class average TOTAL score is 82.5%. This is great, nice and high!
At this point almost 25% of the class have "total scores" above 90%. That's A's (or A-'s), this is awesome!

At this point over 2/3 of the class have "total scores" above 79%. That's A's and B's, again, this is great.

At this point over 90% of the class have "total scores" above 68%, which we consider C- or higher. Definitely passing.

If you are in the 10% who have a total estimated score below 68%, PLEASE SEE DR. MARTINS OR DR. POLLOCK RIGHT AWAY! Make an appointment, or just find us after class or in our office hours. Do it this week, don't delay! If you want to pass the course, now is the time to make adjustments! Wishful thinking, promises to yourself, good intentions are all great, but they will not have the kind of impact on your grade that a solid, detailed study plan will have. Don't delay - we are here to help, really.!
If you wait till the end of the term, we will be very sympathetic but there will be nothing more we can do to help at that point.
Take ownership of your learning, help us help you! (One more important thing to note, but only for a couple of students - if you missed more than 1 lab, not counting weeks when we are doing exam/review/makeups, this term, it is an automatic fail of the entire course. NOW would be the time to talk to your TA about this.)

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Here is information about the third exam

Expect a mix of multiple choice and "written answer" questions rather like last time. Some questions from earlier in the course will appear, the course is "cumulative"! But, the emphasis on midterms is, as you have seen, more focused on newer material (since the previous midterm) As before - multiple choice will be a mix of qualitative, conceptual, and also computational questions. Bring a calculator for the latter, you might need it this time. Written answer will be graded on your clarity and clear explanations - partial credit is definitely possible, but we need to understand your reasoning. (Correct answers for completely wrong reasons do not count on the written portion!) Please strive to be brief but clear!

Here is an old sample exam 3 and here is its answer key . Another one will be discussed in lab exam week, it will be posted on the usual Lab Manuals link. Answers to the lab practice exam will not be posted until everyone has had a chance to take their lab (the last section is Thursday afternoon), so that means those answers will be up only briefly on the day of the exam. But, of course you can and should talk with your TA during lab time to check yourself!!

 

As usual, see our detailed "learning goals" page for more details about what is covered on the midterm. (Exams in this course are always cumulative, but the emphasis on Exam 3 will be on new material since Exam 2, specifically magnets, magnetic fields, Faraday's law, and light as an EM wave)

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Exam #2 had an average score of 74.5%, 5 points higher than exam 1. Nicely done! The median was 78% (half did better than that, half did worse)
We do NOT assign a letter grade to individual exams. There is no point in doing so, since each exam is only a small fraction of your grade. (See below for what matters for figuring out your estimated course grade!)
Here is the distribution of Exam 2 scores:

 

If your score is lower than you were expecting, please see this link for some thoughts and suggestions (and feel free to meet with Prof. Martins, Pollock, or your TA to see how to do better next time)

Below is the much more important histogram: "estimated total course scores" (which factors in CAPA, Written HW, and Lab too)
At this early stage, we assume your future exams will be identical to your own average of Exam 1 & 2, as our "best estimation".
(So right now Exams 1 and 2 are still more heavily weighted in your total score than they will be in the end.)

See this link for our detailed information about how we assign grades. (It's also in the "Course Info -> Grade info" tab)
Here is the histogram of "estimated course score" as of Mar 15. Notice how much higher it is than Exam 2 alone ;-)

The class average TOTAL score is 82.5%. This is great, nice and high!
At this point aver 20% of the class have "total scores" above 90%. That's A's (or A-'s), this is awesome!

At this point over 70% of the class have "total scores" above 79%. That's A's and B's, again, this is great. That's the majority2/3 of the class getting an A or B.

At this point well over 90% of the class have "total scores" above 68%, which we consider C- or higher. Definitely passing.

If you are in the 10% who have a total estimated score below 68%, PLEASE SEE DR. MARTINS OR DR. POLLOCK RIGHT AWAY! Make an appointment, or just find us after class or in our office hours. Do it this week, don't delay! If you want to pass the course, now is the time to make adjustments! Wishful thinking, promises to yourself, good intentions are all great, but they will not have the kind of impact on your grade that a solid, detailed study plan will have. Don't delay - we are here to help, really.!
If you wait till the end of the term, we will be very sympathetic but there will be nothing more we can do to help at that point.
Take ownership of your learning, help us help you!

 

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Here is more information about the second exam

Exam 2 will cover everything we have done in class, homeworks, labs, and reading assignments up through Chapter 20.6

Expect a mix of multiple choice and "written answer" questions ratherlike last time. Some questions from earlier in the course will appear, the course is "cumulative"! As before - multiple choice will be a mix of qualitative, conceptual, and also computational questions. Bring a calculator for the latter, you might need it this time. Written answer will be graded on your clarity and clear explanations - partial credit is definitely possible, but we need to understand your reasoning. (Correct answers for completely wrong reasons do not count on the written portion!) Please strive to be brief but clear!

Here is the cribsheet I will provide you (!) for the 2nd exam (I may modify it as we get closer to the exam, but it's a good draft)

Here is an old sample exam and here is its answer key. Another one will be discussed in lab exam week, it is already posted on the usual Lab Manuals link, and will also be provided to you in lab. Answers to the lab practice exam will not be posted until everyone has had a chance to take their lab (the last section is Thursday afternoon), so that means those answers will be up only briefly on the day of the exam. But, of course you can and should talk with your TA during lab time to check yourself!!

- I like the "Questions" at the end of each Giancoli chapter (Not the "Problems" so much - they are more CAPA like, a little too involved for exams)

- There is a detailed "learning goals" page here. Please visit it - it goes through the highlights chapter by chapter!

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OLDER EXAM INFORMATION:

 

Exam #1 had an average score of 70%. The median was 71% (half did better than that, half did worse)
We do NOT assign a letter grade to individual exams. There is no point in doing so, since each exam is only a small fraction of your grade. (See below for what matters for figuring out your estimated course grade!)
The distribution of exam is quite "normal", here it is:

This average is a wee bit on the low side from what we hoped, but this is really very typical for this course. We know the first exam with a new instructor is always hard for everyone. Please remember that exams are only a portion of your grade!

If your score is lower than you were expecting, please see this link for some thoughts and suggestions (and feel free to meet with Prof. Martins, Pollock, or your TA to see how to do better next time)

Below is the much more important histogram: "estimated total course scores" (which factors in CAPA, Written HW, and Lab too)
At this early stage, we assume your future exams will be identical to your own Exam 1, as our "best estimation".
(So right now Exam 1 is more heavily weighted in your total score than it will be in the end.)

See this link for our detailed information about how we assign grades. (It's also in the "Course Info -> Grade info" tab)
Here is the histogram of "estimated course score" as of Feb 15. Notice how much higher it is than Exam 1 alone ;-)

The class average TOTAL score is 82%. This is great, nice and high!
At this point about 22% of the class have "total scores" above 90%. That's A's (or A-'s), this is awesome!

At this point over 65% of the class have "total scores" above 79%. That's A's and B's, again, this is great. That's 2/3 of the class getting an A or B.

At this point 90% of the class have "total scores" above 68%, which we consider C- or higher. Definitely passing.

If you are in the 10% who have a total estimated score below 68%, PLEASE SEE DR. MARTINS OR DR. POLLOCK RIGHT AWAY! Make an appointment, or just find us after class or in our office hours. Do it this week, don't delay! If you want to pass the course, now is the time to make adjustments! Wishful thinking, promises to yourself, good intentions are all great, but they will not have the kind of impact on your grade that a solid, detailed study plan will have. Don't delay - we are here to help, really.!
If you wait till the end of the term, we will be very sympathetic but there will be nothing more we can do to help at that point.
Take ownership of your learning, help us help you!

 

____________________________________________________________________________________
Here is more information about the first exam

Exam 1 will cover everything we have done in class, homeworks, labs, and reading assignments up through the end of Chapter 17.

Expect a mix of multiple choice and "written answer" questions (roughly about 3/4 of the exam is multi-choice).

For your information, here is the cribsheet for this 1st exam.

Multiple choice will be a mix of qualitative, conceptual, and also computational questions. Bring a calculator for the latter

Written answer will be graded on your clarity and clear explanations - partial credit is definitely possible, but we need to understand your reasoning. (Correct answers for completely wrong reasons do not count on the written portion!)

Please strive to be brief but clear!

 

- Here is an old sample exam, and here is its answer key.

- There will ALSO be a (different) practice exam to do in lab the week of the exam. It will be provided to you in lab. Answers to that will not be posted until everyone has had a chance to take their lab (the last section is Thursday afternoon), so that means those answers will be up only briefly on the day of the exam. But, of course you can and should talk with your TA during lab time to check yourself!!

- Giancoli ALSO has practice questions if you like - take a look at our "Course Resources -> Textbook" link to find those. Scroll on the bar near the top to find Chapter 16 or 17, then look for the Practice Questions link.

- There is a detailed "learning goals" page here. Please visit it - it goes through the highlights of both chapters.

You will get your graded exam back in lab the week after the exam. At that time, if you feel that an error has been made by us in grading your written question, the procedure is: 1) Look carefully at the solutions! 2) If you still think there's an issue, please don't write anything on the exam itself after getting it back! Talk to your TA - they helped grade the exams and will know the "grading rubric" well. If at that point you still feel there is an issue, write up a brief note outlining the issue and give it to your TA, along with your exam. They will pass it along to Dr. Martins, who will look into it
- If after carefully looking at the posted solutions you are convinced the Scantron misread your bubble sheet (this almost never happens, but...), please email Dr. Martins right away.

- If you are unhappy with your score, see this page.

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Consider "power posing" before your next exam!