Wu's General Course Policies by 2019:

• Perspective on Lectures, Discussion-sessions
  
  I must admit that you can learn the course-material (and do the assignments) yourself with just the textbooks! So what can we add with lectures and discussion-sessions?
  • another presentation of the same material
    Sometimes it's useful to get two different explanations of something, e.g. your father's explanation for something versus your mother's explanation, or an administrator's explanation for something versus one of your fellow students' explanation of the real inside story...
  • highlight material
    We can present what's most important among all the course-material.
  • additional different examples
    We can present variations, or completely different solutions.
  • further material
    We can go `beyond' the textbook, e.g. mentioning points from latest scentific studies.
  • interactivity
    You can have questions and answers immediately as material is presented. Particularly this is the explicit purpose of discussion-sessions -- discussions!
  
  
  
• Letter-grading of Some Exercises
  
  For some assignments, grading will use letters "A", "B", "C", "D", and "F" qualified with "+"/"-": "A", "A-", "B+", "B", "B-", etc. The following indicates the correspondence between letter-grades and quality of work. ("+" indicates quality slightly higher than what an unqualified letter specifies; "-" indicates slightly lower quality.)
  • F: nothing
    No work (or essentially no work) was submitted.
  • D: poor
    Something was submitted, but it's really worth little.
  • C: flawed
    The answer misses doing some things specified in the assignment / it has some major flaw or too many minor ones.
  • B: OK
    The answer is basically just right, fulfilling just the letter of the assignment, having only a few small flaws.
  • B+: good
    The answer is all right, having no flaws except perhaps only a few very minor ones.
  • A: excellent
    The answer is perfect and in good style, such as: with elegant derivation, simplicity, clarity etc.
  • A++...: bonus If you actually surpass "A" work with further additional work such as extension to another system; numerical investigation after analytical one, then for each major additional improvement (or several minor ones) that you achieve, you can get a "+" added to your "A". Such bonuses count within this course, raising your overall score used for grading.
  
  
  
• Missing Work?
  
  You should not skip work because of the obvious immediate loss of points for it. If necessary, submit work for an assignment late -- subject to penalties of lower points. The longer you delay, the lower points you get. Also if you do not turn in your work before the release of the answer, you will just get F for this assignment. If you know in advance that you'll be unable to submit a homework/assignment precisely on the day when it's due, e.g. because you'll be away, then you should simply submit your work early; a late submission will be subject to the lateness-policy described above.
  
  
• Grades
  
  Homework (40% of final grade); Midterm Exam (20% of final grade); Final Exam (40% of final grade).
  After weight average, if a student's score is D/F, he will just get this D/F, which means he fails the course. For those whose grades are above F, then their final grades will be readjusted to show the relative position of each student in the class as follows:
  • A+ (=100): For extreme excellency.
  • A (=95): 5%
  • A- (=90): 10%
  • B+ (=85): 15%
  • B (=80): 20%
  • B- (=75): 30%
  • C+ (=70): 15%
  • C (=65): 5%
  This means: if a student's absoult score after weight average is B-, but he is on top 5% of the whole class, then his final grade is A.
  
  Starting from 2021, the final grades will be readjusted as follows:
  • Weight average S: if S<10
  • 60: S from 10 to 19
  • 61: S from 20 to 29
  • 62: S from 30 to 39
  • 63: S from 40 to 49
  • 64: S from 50 to 59
  • 65: S from 60 to 65
  • S: S>65
  Starting from 2022, I have to use "Characteristic Score (CS)" defined as follows:
  • CS 60: if one can correctly write his/her name.
  • CS=S/2.5+60
  
  
  
• Academic Dishonesty
  
  Academic dishonesty is not acceptable in my course. If you copy another student's homework assignment or exam, both you and the student from whom you copied will receive a grade of zero for that assignment or exam. In addition, a Faculty Report Form for Academic Misconduct will be sent to the Office of the Students, and your case will be referred to the head of the student's Department.
  Remember that cheating hurts everybody, and you should not hesitate to inform your instructor or teaching assistant if you witness an act of cheating. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.
  One might think, "It doesn't hurt me if anybody cheats." But actually a high score obtained by cheating lowers the relative worth of everyone else's score. More long-term, high grades obtained by cheating lower the relative worth of everyone else's grades when they try to get jobs after college. So it's to your advantage to help discourage cheating.
  
  
• Letter of Reference(?)
  
  Naturally, for me to write a recommendation for you, I need to know who you are and how good your work is. Thus, things such as the following facilitate my doing so.
  
  • Get at least an "A-" in a course from me.
  • Take more than one course taught by me.
  • Ask questions during lectures, e.g. requesting clarification of specifics of lecture-material, checking if something I present appears incorrect, asking about possibilities beyond what I present, etc.
  
  If you do request letters of reference from me, please do the following:
  • Clearly specify when each letter is due.
  • If letters need to be mailed, provide stamps. DO NOT affix stamps to envelopes: I need to use envelopes which our university has that are imprinted with the return-address here.
  • Give me a list of all the courses you took from me, their dates (which years and which semesters), and the grades you received in them.
  • Leave copies of some of your graded work with me.

 
 
                                                      
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