How grading works for this class is different from what you are probably used to in most math classes, so I want to thoroughly explain how it works. You can also see a summary on the syllabus. (For any education majors, this is a version of Standards Based Grading.)

The basic idea is to not use points, since they are an imperfect attempt to get at what really matters. Grades are supposed to be a measure of your mastery of the material for the class, so let’s base your grade directly on your mastery of the various concepts of the class.

The material for this class is divided into eight Mastery Topics, some more central than others. Your grade is based on your mastery of each of these topics, plus a component from the online homework. To assess your mastery of a topic I will use quizzes, offered at regular intervals throughout the semester. (See the schedule on the main page for the course for exact dates.) Unlike other methods for grading, you can retake mastery quizzes. Your grade is supposed to measure how well you know the material, so why should it matter if you didn’t master the concepts for topic 1 until seeing how they apply to later topics? On the flip side, once you demonstrate mastery in a topic you don’t need to take that quiz again. There’s no cumulative final at the end of the semester you need to cram for.

Mastery Levels

For assessing your mastery of each topic, I’ll assign one of four levels. Each corresponds to a numerical value, to make it easy to put in a gradebook.

(3) Mastery acheived: You understand the material fully, answering both conceptual and computational questions. Perhaps you made a minor mistake or two along the way—you dropped a minus sign or made an arithmetic error—but you have a correct process from start to end.
(2) Approaching mastery: You have an understanding of the material, but are not quite at mastery. Maybe you aced the computational problems but struggled with the conceptual questions. Or perhaps you had the correct idea of what to do to solve the computational problems but you didn’t see how to carry it all the way through to completion.
(1) Needs improvement: You understand some of the material, but need to improve. You have some familiarity with the concepts, but couldn’t correctly answer the conceptual questions. You have some idea of what the computational questions are asking about, but you don’t see the overall picture of how to proceed.
(0) No mastery: You didn’t demonstrate understanding of the material. You wrote nothing down, or what you wrote down didn’t meaningful engage with the concepts you’re asked to understand.

To get credit for a topic toward your grade, you need at least to be approaching mastery (2) in the topic. For the most important topics, you need to acheive mastery (3) in them to earn a C or above, and earning a B or an A requires acheiving mastery (3) in even more topics. If you need improvement (1) you should put forth extra effort in studying the topic before the next mastery quiz. Taking advantage of office hours would be a good idea. If you demonstrated no mastery (0) that’s a sign that something went wrong. Maybe you were skipping class or couldn’t pay attention. We should meet to talk about how you can get back on track and, in extreme cases, you may need resources outside of this class.

Earning grades

Here are the requirements to earn the different possible grades in this class.

(A) Acheive mastery (3) in six topics, have at least approaching mastery (2) in one more topic, and acheive ≥90% on homework; OR acheive mastery (3) on all eight topics.
(B) Not meet the standards for an A, and: Acheive mastery (3) four topics, have at least approaching mastery (2) in two more topics, and acheive ≥70% on homework.
(C) Not meet the standards for a B, and: Acheive mastery (3) in two topics, have at least approaching mastery (2) in three topics, and acheive ≥70% on homework.
(D) Not meet the standards for a C, and: have at least approaching mastery (2) in five topics, and acheive ≥50% on homework.
(F) Not meet the standards for a D.

Here’s the same information summarized in a table showing the number of different topics you acheived a mastery level in to get each grade, as well as the homework scores need.

Grade	Mastery levels needed across different topics	Homework grade
A	3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 0	≥90%
A	OR: 3s in all topics	≥0%
B	3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 0, 0	≥70%
C	3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0	≥70%
D	2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0	≥50%
F	0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0	≥0%

Quiz Periods and Mastery Quizzes.

Regularly throughout the semester we will use a class day as a quiz period for you to take mastery quizzes. Each quiz period you can take quizzes for the topics we’ve covered so far. For each quiz I’ll give you feedback and assign you a number from 0 to 3 giving your level of mastery of the material. You can retake quizzes in later quiz periods until you are happy with your mastery level, with the highest number going in the gradebook. (You should be shooting for at least a 2, and optimally a 3. Let me re-emphasize that for the most central topics you must achieve a 3 to get at least a C in this class.)

Each quiz is a single sheet of paper, front and back, consisting of conceptual questions and computational problems. The conceptual questions ask you to give definitions, explain concepts, and so on, while the computational problems ask you to do calculations with a concrete problem. Acheiving mastery (3) on a topic is based on correct answers on both the conceptual and computational problems.

For some computational problems you will need a calculator. Due to how assessments work, you will need a separate calculator, not something on your phone or tablet or computer. Your calculator will need to have the trig functions, and work with both degrees and radians. You can find a scientific calculator with these functions online or at stores in the 10–20 dollar range, and this is the only money I am asking you to spend for this class (besides pencil and paper to take notes).

Online Homework

Part of the requirements for your grade involves the online homework, done through the MyOpenMath.com website. This is a free and open source online math homework system. Info about how to log in will be posted on the class discord site. There is a homework assignment for each day of class, with the exception of quiz period days. Each homework assignment is due by 11:59pm the night before the next class period. You can retry problems until you get full points. (Strictly speaking, the software requires me to put in a limit but I set it high enough that you shouldn’t run out.) I encourage you retry the homework problems until you get all points.

MyOpenMath includes a “late pass” system to handle extensions. The way this works is, you can use a late pass on an assignment to push back the due date by 72 hours, with no need to ask me for permission. I set the system to give everyone lots of late passes, so you shouldn’t be in danger of running out. That said, you should try to finish every homework by the original due date, since it’s an important part of learning the material so you can demonstrate mastery on the assessments.