ECON 2020
Dr. Tufte
Managing Your Grade
I allow you to retake chapter quizzes in this class. You can even retake a chapter quiz more than once.
Used judiciously, this policy gives you flexibility to improve your final grade :)
This is an offer that you should take seriously (most professors don't do anything like this, and I can only manage it for ECON 2020).
Why do I do this? Because it's been my experience that for many students Macro is a class that takes some time “to gel”. This means that you may understand an earlier chapter better later in the semester than you do right now. This policy allows you to take advantage of that.
Here's how it works. If you retake a chapter quiz, you will face a set of 10 new questions. Your new score will count towards your final grade, and the old score will not. Note that this is different from the Connect homeworks: on those, your new score gets averaged with your old scores.
You may only retake quizzes on old chapters only on exam days, in your classroom.
On exam days, I will show up and give everyone the standard exam composed of 2 or 3 chapter quizzes, plus a comprehensive quiz. Almost all students finish these with time to spare. In that spare time, you may retake 1 or more chapter quizzes that I will make available to those who ask.
I do not advise you to ever retake a chapter quiz with a score of 8 or higher. There is too much chance for you to make random errors, or to face questions on a topic you aren’t that well prepared for.
You should always consider retaking a chapter quiz with a score of 6 or lower. The lower the score you’re trying to replace, the more likely it is that you were just guessing the first time around. So, if you have studied and gained some better understanding of that chapter you may be able to improve your grade.
Here are some examples. These are drawn from the actual choices of real students in past semesters.
This student chose to take the exam the “regular way”, as done in other classes. The scores that I will count after Exam 2 are highlighted. There's nothing wrong with this, and no penalty either. But ... if I were this student I'd probably retake some chapters on Exam 3 ;)
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
Score |
10 |
8 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
5 |
4 |
This student chose to retake only Chapter 9. The scores that I will count after Exam 2 are highlighted. Note that this student improved their grade by retaking that quiz :)
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
Score |
7 |
7 |
6 |
|
|
|
8 |
5 |
4 |
This student chose to retake only Chapters 7 and 8. The scores that I will count after Exam 2 are highlighted. Note that this student did not help or hurt themselves by retaking those quizzes (because they had 13 points on those two chapters before and after retaking those chapter quizzes) :| On the other hand, now they've got an 8 on one chapter :) and they can take Chapter 7 again to try and do better.
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
Score |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
5 |
8 |
|
7 |
7 |
This student chose to retake only Chapter 8. The scores that I will count after Exam 2 are highlighted. Note that this student hurt their grade by retaking that quiz :( It happens, but not often.
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
Score |
9 |
5 |
4 |
|
|
3 |
|
7 |
8 |
This student chose to skip the first exam, and then took some of the quizzes they missed, and some of the new ones on Exam 2. The scores that I will count after Exam 2 are highlighted. Note that this student will still have to take Chapter 9 sometime on a later exam (because that empty spot will eventually get counted as a zero).
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
Score |
|
|
|
|
6 |
9 |
|
4 |
5 |
This student chose to retake Chapter 7 on Exam 2, but did not have time to take Chapter 8. So, they took it on Exam 3. :) The highlighted scores are the ones that I will count.
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|||||||||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
13 |
14 |
16 |
|
Score |
4 |
5 |
8 |
|
7 |
|
|
9 |
9 |
|
|
8 |
|
|
|
9 |
6 |
7 |
This student chose to retake some quizzes more than once :) The highlighted scores are the ones that I will count.
|
Exam |
1 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|||||||||||||
|
Chapter |
7 |
8 |
9 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
13 |
14 |
16 |
|
Score |
4 |
5 |
|
|
6 |
|
5 |
4 |
8 |
|
9 |
4 |
|
6 |
|
5 |
5 |
5 |