MARKING POLICY

Last updated: January 6, 2002

This document is posted as an aid in interpreting the marks assigned to work (assignments, tests, or examinations) in this course.

  1. Please remember that marks are not a judgment of your intelligence or diligence or good intentions; they are just a reflection of the work you handed in. If you were very busy with other work, or recuperating from an illness, or emotionally stressed, it would be not be surprising if your mark was lower than under optimal conditions. However, a reason cannot be used as an excuse.
  2. If assignments and project are not handed in by the due date, then your mark is a zero (once model solutions are posted it is obvious that we cannot mark you assignment even with a medical letter)..
  3. The numerical score (or "raw mark score") that you are given on a unit is never to be interpreted as or converted to a percentage. Let us call the mark you receive on a component your RRMS (ranking raw mark score). Your RRMS, on a particular unit such as a test, is merely a way for me to rank you amongst your peers. For example, an RRMS of 76/100 should not necessarily be interpreted as a B+. It just means you did better than a student who scored 75. Your RRMS is just there to rank you in the class. Thus, I may feel that a 76 (in this case) is really a C+ and not a B+.
  4. I assign letter grades to the RRMS on a basis which I feel is both fair, looking at the marking unit, and reflects the meaning of each letter grade as determined by the York Senate and published in the York Undergraduate Programmes Calendar (p. 127). In the final analysis, it is the letter grade only, that will have a meaning to you, with the RRMS merely the means to calculate your final grade.
  5. After each marking unit, I publish via courseInfo a table of conversions from the RRMS to the letter grade. Your letter grade can thus be computed from your RRMS by looking it up in the table. For example, you may obtain the conversions by invoking courseInfo 3311P if you're taking cosc3311 section P.
  6. Claims that the marker overlooked an answer on a test or exam are usually not accepted if the marker indicated that no answer was present (e.g. by assigning a score of 0 to that question.)

Here is an example of how the raw marks are used in a course where there is an assignment (20%), test (25%) and exam (55%). If your browser supports excel spreadsheets, you can can look at the actual spreadsheet grades.xls as well.

  1. After the assignment is marked and handed back, the conversion table will be published as shown above. In this assignment, you need an RRMS of 18/20 to get an A. Note that Jill's 17 on the assignment is not an A. In fact it is a B+.
  2. The conversion table will be published after each unit is marked and handed back to you in class.
  3. Your knowledge of what you achieved on the individual units completely determines your final grade. Once all the units (including the exam) have been marked, we can compute the weighted average (WA) you need to obtain the corresponding letter grade for the course. For example, to get an A in this course, your weighted average must be at least 83.1. The calculation for the WA for an A is:
    WA(A)  = =(0.2*(B6/B5)+0.25*(C6/C5)+0.55*(D6/D5))*100
  4. To get an A+ for the course, you need at least 91.55. This is the midpoint between an A and the next letter grade (in this case the maximum mark) and is calculated by:
    WA(A+) = E6 + (E5-E6)/2
  5. Notice that Jack's final grade is a B+ because he did not quite make the A breakpoint of 83.1. Jack's A+ on his assignment did not help him get an A for his final grade.
  6. Ben achieved a WA of 60.1, i.e. a a D+. Nevertheless, Ben failed the course. This is because Ben's weighted exam/test component was 51.38 whereas 52.06 was required. The 52.06 was calculated by:
     =((0.25/0.8)*(C9/C5) +(0.55/0.8)*(D9/D5))*100
    i.e. the test (.25) plus exam (.55) correspond to a weight of .8 together (.25 + .55), and the test contributes .25 of this weight and the exam .55 of this weight. The assignment is ignored in this calculation. Ben's weighted test/exam component of 51.38 is calculated by:
    =((0.25/0.8)*(C21/C5) +(0.55/0.8)*(D21/D5))*100
  7. Betty missed the test (dns). The weight of her exam must thus be increased by the weight of her test, i.e. her exam now has  .8 of the total weight. Betty's WA of 63.8 is calculated by:
    =(0.2*(B22/B5)+0.8*(D22/D5))*100
    Her weighted test/exam component is calculated as =((0.8/0.8)*(D22/D5))*100. In this case, it is of just whatever the exam mark is.