12/21/08: All Individual student Course records, including letter grades and final exam scores, have been posted on <elms.umd>' Blackboard/Gradebook today, SUN 12/21/08.

Use your password to review your own record. The record includes your Course letter grade <LG>, your Normalized Course Score, NCsSc, you overall Course Score <CsSc>, computed as described under GRADING POLICY: CsSc = 0.55*NTS +0.30*NLS +0.10*NHS +0.05*NPS. The Normalized Course Score, NCsSc, is the quantity which, when ordered from highest to lowest, determines the letter grades . A Histogram of the CsSc distribution, including the cut-off values of CsSc for the various letter grades, will be posted here soon.

Also given is your Normalized Final Exam Score <NFnl/136.4> {where 136.4 here, and similar numerical denominators for other normalized quantitities, indicates the hypothetical maximum possible normalized score which one would have achieved who answered all 120 final exam questions correctly}, your Raw Final Exam Score <RawFinal/240> = 2x(No. correct). These are the main results of courrent interest. Histograms of the Final Exam Raw Score Distribution and of the Course Score Distribution have been posted. See the announcement of 12/20/08 just below to see them..

Also provided to help you to follow through the process of generating your <Course Score> is your Normalized Test Score <NTS/153.5> ( labelled NTS for "Normalized Test Score" in the CsSc formula above). NTS is computed from your Adjusted Exam Score, <AdjEx/579.9>, which in turn is obtained by dropping your lowest (normalized) one hour-share of test scores from your Total Test Score, which is the sum the three normalized hourly test scores and twice the normalized score of your ( two hour) Final Exam.

In addition, your Normalized Lab Score <NLS/72.9> {computed from the normalization of your adjusted Lab Score, <AdjLab/100>, which in turn is obtained by assigning for Raw Lab scores equal to or greater than 80% of 220 =176, the Max possible value, equal to 100, and scaling Raw Lab scores <176 proportionately}, and your <RawLab> Score(out of 220), are included.

Likewise, your Normalized HW score <NHS/83.6>, your adjusted HW score <AdjHW/100> (adjusted to 80% of the Max, 132, like the Lab scores mentioned above), your Raw HW score <RHW/132>, and your Normalized Participation Score, <NPS>, your Raw Participation Score, <FnlClckrTtl/36>,and your Adjusted Participation Score, <AdjPS> are included. The Participation Scores are handled in the same way as the Lab and HW scores were handled above, i.e. according to the "80% is Enough" principle.

In addition, all of the records previously published on Exams I, II and III and the Early Warning Letter Grades (EWG) presented early in the semester remain available on Blackboard.

Please call me at 301-405-6118 if you need help understanding your record, and leave your telephone number and a good time for me to call you back if I am not here when you call. And please email <griffin@physics.umd.edu> if you have any difficulty getting your Blackboard results.

Have a good holiday!

J. Griffin
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12/15/07: Regarding the Final Exam: If you are delayed, come late rather than not at all! We can sometimes arranged extra time to keep the playing field level.
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12/9/08C: The material of the last five lectures, {Ch 14, Ch15(Waves, pp304-314 only), Ch16(p330-332 only), Ch 22(pp 469-472 only), Ch 23 and Ch 24(pp 509-511only)}, which was not covered in the hourly exams, will be double weighted in the final exam, comprising about 10/45 = 2/9 = 22% of the questions, rather than its 5/40 = 1/8 = 12.5% share of the semesters 40 lectures. The material covered in the earlier 7/8 of the lectures and in Exams I, II, and III, will constitute the remaining 7/9 of the Final Exam.
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12/9/08B: Click VG3Surprises, VGBlackBody, VGPhotoElectric, VGDeBroglie, VGNBohrAtom, VGPath to QuantumMech to see viewgraphs from this week;'s lectures. (Copies were distributed in class on MON 12/8;
ask for a copy if you missed it then.
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12/8/08A: For corrected (for Problem #13: See 12/5/A note below) solutions for Exam III, click ExamIIIF08Solutions; for the text of Exam III click ExamIIIF08.
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12/3/08: Our discussion of waves, illuminating for DeBroglie's justification of the Bohr atom, will, unfortunately be too brief. We shall touch upon pages 298-314 only of Ch 15, omitting Interference and following material, and pick up Standing Waves on strings from Ch 16 (pages 330-332 only). Then Ch 23 is the topic for next week, picking up also from Ch 22 Electomagnetic Waves (pp469-472) and DeBroglie Waves from Ch 24 (pp509-511 only).
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12/2/08B: Exam III on Friday 12/5/08 will cover Ch 10, 11, 12 (up to p 243 only), and 13.(NOTE: Ch 14, Available Energy, and the 2nd Law of Thermodaynamics, is NOT included in Exam III. Ch 14 and later material will be double weighted in Final Exam.)
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11/21/08A: Click Ideal (or "Perfect") GasLaw to see a detailed discussion of the bases for the Ideal Gas Law, and IdealGasRecap for a brief summary of where the Ideal Gas Law comes from.
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11/17/08B: Clicker Total Count tallies (out of a maximum of 26, including today's of MON 11/17), have been posted at <elms.umd>'s Blackboard/GradeBook. Use your password to see them there.
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11/10/08: Click ExamII-Histogram to see the class' distribution of Raw Scores for Exam II. Also, go to Blackboard
to see your own Raw (RawExamII/ 120), and Normalized (NExII/ 137.2) Scores:N = 70 +(R - 57.5)*(20/18.6). The maximum possible Raw Score is 120, and that score with the present average and standard deviation would have yielded a Normalized Exam II score of 137.2.
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11/09/08A: Version B of Exam IIF08 had the same questions as Version A, but shuffled into a different order. Click
VersionB-ExamIIF08Solutions to see the correspondence between the Version B questions and those of Version A,
the solutions to which were posted earlier at ExamIIF08Solutions.
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11/07/08: Click ExamIIF08Solutions to see the solutions to today's exam.
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11/03/08A: Clicker Totals including today's (out of a Maximum of 20)have be uploaded to <elms.umd>'s Blackboard/Gradebook. Use your password there to check that your total is correct.
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10/27/08C::In-class Q/A slides up to and including MON 10/27 have been posted here.Click <In-ClassQ&A> to view them.
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10/23/08B: Old ExamIIFall07, its KEY, OldExIIF07KEY, and its solutions, OldExIIF07Slns, are posted here. Click to view. Use the old exams wisely to gauge your readiness....premature perusal of the solutions can lead to an over-optimistic view of your prowess. (The old Exam II from S08 will also be posted here soon.)
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10/13/08A: Official Early Warning Grades have been entered today. Check your record at Testudo to verify that your grade agrees with your expectation.
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10/1/08A: Exam I on Friday is OPEN BOOK: Bring Texts, notes, and a self-powered hand CALCULATOR, but leave behind all laptops, cellphones, balackberries and any other device which can communicate with the outside world. Also, bring a #2 PENCIL to mark the NCS sheet....the scanner CAN NOT read ink marks of any kind. Finally, check the website tomorrow to learn your ASSIGNED EXAM-I SEAT location, or look for a seating list when you arrive for the exam on Friday. Please do not occupy any seat except that assigned to you. And remember: Pre-Exam Q/A Session at 6:00PM on THU 10/2/08 in Physics 2113 (2nd Floor, South Side).
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9/25/08A: Grading of HW#1 and HW#2. Due to bad communication, HW's #1 and #2 were not graded in the fashion promised in our in class discussions of HW grading. Instead, each TA graded one of these sets with a reasonable scheme which however differed from the other's and from our promised (9+3) Scheme.
{Our 9+3 Scheme proceeds as follows: Out of 10 assigned problems, we grade 1 chosen problem (the same for all students) for 3 points, and count the other 9 problems without grading them in detail. A "good faith effort" at a solution earns the one point for each of these nine problems. Maximum possible score: 12 per HW set. Note that a simple numerical answer is not a "good faith effort" at a solution, nor is a solution which a reasonable person would conclude was simply copied from the posted solutions, or form another student's submitted HW. These earn respectively zero, and half the score( for each of the two simliar papers).}
The scores from the two misguided grading schemes have been recast into our 0-12 scoring range as follows:
For HW #1, originally graded on a score of 0-12, with one point subtracted for each wrong answer, the scores have been adjusted as follows: (9 or less) becomes 9; 10 becomes 10; 11 becomes 11; 12 becomes 12, and handing in the wrong HW set (e.g. from the 6th edition instead of from the website's 5th edition problems) earns 12-3= 9.
For HW#2, originally graded as 10 per problem for a scale of 0-100, any score of 75 or less becomes 9; scores
of 76-84 become 10; and scores of 85-94 becomes11, and scorse 95-100 become 12. In addition, handing solutions to the wrong HW set earned you (as in HW#1): 12 -3 = 9.
The rationale behind these adjustments is that we are willing to assume that all of the problems submitted were in these cases "good faith" attempts, so that 9 becomes the minimum score. Beyond that we use the grade actually given to try to estimate how well you might have done on the one graded problem were the standard 9+3 Scheme to have been used. The purpose is to avoid the chore of having to grade the whole of both HW sets all over again.
If any student feels aggrieved by this process, Dr.Griffin will be happy to hear and consider your complaint.
Also, from now on, the 9+3 Scheme of grading HW will be followed.

9/22/08B: Clicker totals (out of 2, maximum so far) were uploaded today to elms.umd/Blackboard/Gradebook. Use your password to see your total there, and verify that it is correct. Please let me know (griffin@physics.umd.edu) about any suspected errors.
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9/8/08: Notetaker(s) needed: If you wish to be a notetaker for a Physics 117 student who needs such assistance, the Office of Disability Support Services would like to know of your interest. If you are interested, email your (Name, Phone Number, and Email address) information to me (J. Griffin), and I will forward it .Click NotetakerSignUp to see the sign-up sheet, and the stipend offered.
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9/6/08: Click Notes-1D Motion to see one page notes on one dimensional motion, which were handed out in class on Friday, 9/5.
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8/27/08: We will use "clickers" in Physics 117 this semester, and each student's in-class "clicks" will determine his/her PARTICIPATION score. Click PARTICIPATION for more details. Please obtain a clicker and bring it to class, so that you can use the first few trial questions to verify that your clicker is working properly before the questions begin to count towards your grade.
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8/15/08: The website was uploaded today and should be fully functional. If you notice any quirks or errors, please email a comment to <griffin@physics.umd.edu>. If you want to see how this site, and in particular this Announcements page, worked in the last (Spring 2008) semester, click 117S08.
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