PHY 2053 Exams and Final:

• There will be two in-term exams and a cumulative final exam.
• These exams will not take place in your lecture hall in the physics building. Room assignments for where you must go to take the exams will be announced during class and posted on the course web page.
• Exams are multiple choice with your answers bubbled in on Scantron sheets.
• To each in-term exam you may bring a single hand written formula sheet on 8½ x 11 inch paper (both sides) and you should bring a calculator (calculators may not be shared and may not have electronic communications capability), #2 pencils, an eraser and your picture ID (preferably your UF-ID).
• Unless superseded by a valid excuse a missed exam will result in a zero. Valid excuses are officially sanctioned UF events, medical excuses or family emergencies. Acceptable excuses will require a coach's, doctor's or instructor sanctioned note with a verifiable contact phone number.
• A valid excuse will allow you to take the cumulative make-up exam to replace the zero on the missed exam. There will be one cumulative make-up exam (covering material from both exams) given on Wednesday April 20, 2011. The grade on this make-up exam will replace the missed exam.
• The two in-term exams and the final exam will be equally weighted and count for 60% of the overall course grade. None of the exam grades will be dropped.
• Previous exams will be uploaded to the PHY2053 e-Learning WEBsite.

PHY 2053 On-Line Graded Homework:

• To get onto the online homework system you will need to enter the access code that came with the hardcopy textbook.
• To login on WebAssign go to WebAssign using using the username = Your Gatorlink UserName, institution code = ufl, and initial password = Your UF-ID (8 digit number).
• You should change your initial password when you login for the first time.
• The first online homework assignment is due on Friday January 14, 2011. The course Schedule Page gives the assigned problems and due dates. Once the due date/time has passed no further input of answers for credit will be accepted. It is your responsibility to get your homework in on time. Last minute computer/local server problems will not excuse you from this responsibility.
• WebAssign Homework Problems:
  • The problems come from your textbook. However, the numbers are randomized for each student (i.e. the problems will be same as the textbook but with different numbers).
  • You will have five tries to get the correct answer. You will not be counted off for significant figures, however to get credit your answer must be correct within 2%.
  • For most of the problems WebAssign will give you a “hint” after the third incorrect try.
  • For about half of the assigned problems WebAssign will provide you the “solution” after the the third incorrect try. The “solution” will be for the problem in the textbook. After studying the “solution” you will have two more tries to get the correct answer.
  • For about half of the assigned problems you will not be given the solution. You must learn how to do these problems on your own.
• The on-line homework portion of the course will count for 15% of the overall course grade. To provide a measure of forgiveness for illnesses and possible network problems, 10% of the on-line homework grades will be dropped in evaluating your final grade. See the overall grade formula (PDF).

PHY 2053 Student Response System - HITT Grade:

• In class student participation using the HITT student response system will be used in every lecture.
• In class HITT responses will begin to count towards your course grade starting on on Tuesday January 18, 2011, but you should get your remotes sooner for practice questions that will help you to become familiar with the system before the questions starting counting toward your grade.
• The transmitter will let you respond to questions posed during class. Your response will be recorded. Simply responding will get you 1 point credit for the question while responding correctly will get you 2 points credit.
• To get credit you must register on the system (see the instructions in the syllabus).
• It is your responsibility to ensure that your remote is functioning properly and that you are sending on the correct channel (see the instructions for setting the remote channel). It is recommended that you set the channel at the start of each lecture.
• To provide a measure of forgiveness for unavoidable missed classes and for problems with the HITT transmitter, 20% of the HITT problems will be dropped in evaluating your final grade.
• Your HITT grade will count as 5% of your overall course grade. See the overall grade formula (PDF).

PHY 2053 Overall Course Grades:

How to Succeed in PHY2053:

• It is expected that a successful student will invest at least twelve hours studying and problem-solving per week outside of class. Do not expect a good grade if you are not prepared to work this much.
• Read the assigned chapters before coming to lecture. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized.
• Work as many problems as possible on a weekly basis; the assigned (graded) problems represent the minimum recommended set. Go to instructor's and discussion leaders' office hours for individual help (this can be highly effective and should be regarded as free tutoring; make use of it!). To maximize the availability of this help you can go to any Instructor or Section Leader's office hours.
• Keep up on a regular basis; cramming doesn't work for learning physics.
• This course is designed to make you a good "problem solver". Learn to solve the problems. Don't spend your time looking for a formula to plug into. Derive the correct formula for the problem you are working on using the general formulas. This is a difficult course, but if you work hard and learn to be a good "problem solver" it will help you in all your future endeavors!