PHY 2054 - Physics 2- SPRING 2016


GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION


Overall Course Grade: Your course letter grade will not be based on a curve but rather on the fixed scale shown in the table below. The advantage of the fixed scale is that you are not competing with other students to “get ahead of the curve.” Everyone who works hard can do well in the class. The overall grade is based on 100 course points. The two in-term exams and the final exam will be equally weighted and count for a maximum of 75 course points. Your discussion section quiz scores will count for a maximum of 15 course points and your quiz×homework scores will count for a maximim of 10 course points. Your H-ITT bonus points will be added to your overall course grade, however, the maximum number of points for the course is 100 points. If adding in the bonus points gives you more than 100 points, you will only get the full 100 maximum points. Your overall course score will be calculated to 3 significant figures and there is no rounding off.


Grading Procedure
AssignmentMax Course Points
Exam 125
Exam 225
Final Exam25
Quizzes*15
Quiz×Homework*10
Total Points100
HITT Bonus**5
*10% will be dropped.
**Optional bonus points.
Grading Scale (fixed)
A≥ 85
A-≥ 80
B+≥ 75
B≥ 70
B-≥ 65
C+≥ 60
C≥ 55
C-≥ 50
D+≥ 45
D≥ 40
D-≥ 35
E< 35

The formula that will be used to calculate your overall course grade can be found here: PHY2054 Overall Grade Formula.

Normalization of the Quiz Scores: At the end of the semester we will compute the overall average quiz score for each of the PHY2054 TA's. We will make no change to the quiz grades for those students in the classes of the TA with the highest average. We will add "bonus" quiz points to all the other students in such a way as to make all the averages the same as the TA with the highest average. However, if doing so gives you more than 15 points for your overall quiz grade, then you will only get the full 15 points.

Normalization of the Quiz times Homework Scores: At the end of the semester after the quiz grades are normalized we will recalculate the QuizxHomework scores. However, if doing so gives you more than 10 points for your overall QxHW grade, then you will only get the full 10 points.

How to succeed in this course: (1) 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. (2) Read the assigned chapters before coming to lecture. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. (3) Work as many problems as possible on a weekly basis; the assigned practice 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. These will be posted on the course website, once they are established. (4) Keep up on a regular basis; cramming doesn’t work for learning physics.

Honor Code: The UF Honor Code applies to all aspects of this course. It is required that you report any possible infractions to your instructor immediately. Honor Code

Students with disabilities: Students requesting special accomodations on the in-term exams and the final exam must follow the instructions at UF DSO. Students must initiate an accommodated testing request (ATR) for each exam to be scheduled at the DRC (i.e. Exam 1, Exam 2, Final Exam). The PHY2054 instructors will review the request via E-mail and either accept or decline the request as submitted. The ATR must be completed at least four (4) business days before the scheduled exam date. The Accommodated Testing Service (ATS) at DRC will then administer the exam.