May 09, 2004

Computer Science I

I am rather infuriated with a certain professor at the moment. Please let me explain why.

Out of the six programs written for the class, I received a grade of 100 on four of them. I received a 90 and a 93 on the other two. Out of the eleven labs we did for the class, I received a 100 on ten of them and a 0 on the other one. On the three tests before the final, I received an 82, 86 and 90.

All of those (excluding the one 0 which should accout for less than 1% of the total grade) are great grades. These grades take into account 80% of the final grade for the class. Somehow, these grades were weighted so that I just barely had an A (a 90.1) before the final.

Let's review: program average of 97.17 (25% total), lab average of 90.91 (10% total), and test average of 86 (45% total). This gets me a total average (pre-final) of 90.1.

I believe that is a screwed up way to weight the grades. The programs take a great deal more work and more accurately reflect a student's ability in CS. They should be worth more than just over half of what the tests are worth. It is true that some students might try to steal code from others, but when the professor tells the class that the majority of "real" programming is copying code made by others that shouldn't matter!

I typically have no problem with the final taking the last 20% of the total grade, but I do believe that if it is going to be worth that much it should be comprehensive. I do not see the logic in making the final test worth extra if it is nothing more than a "glorified" chapter exam which the professor himself doesn't even bother giving.

In case you haven't figured it you, I made a B in the class. I received an 87.4 as my final grade.

I'm a bit upset about it.

Posted by Randy at May 9, 2004 05:36 PM | TrackBack