Re: test grades

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Quoting Joe Heafner <heafnerj@CTC.NET>:

> A theoretical question: Should a student who earns a failing grade on
> every test (including the final exam) have any possibility of passing
> the course even if quizzes, homework assignments, labs, and attendance
> (and any other pertinent factors) are all in good order? I'm leaning
> heavily toward "no" but I'm interested in others' opinions.

Several answers:

1) It's your course ... you can set up the grading system
however you like within broad limits.  So if you want the
answer to be "no" you can make it "no".

However.....

2) I can easily imagine a lab course where it was announced
in advance that the labs count for everything and homework,
quizzes, et cetera are just for "excercise", not part of
the grade.  Indeed this doesn't require much imagination;
I've taken courses like that.  So if you want the answer
to be "yes" you can make it "yes".

============

Overall:  Thare are all sorts of profound theoretical
questions about what grades mean and what they should mean.
I sure haven't got any good answers to this overall question.

In my experience, trying to predict how a person will perform
based on a GPA is only slightly more successful than predicting
based on a horoscope.