Exams are in-class, closed-book, and time-limited.
Exam-taking security procedures. On
exam day you must bring
your Rutgers photo student ID to class. Prior to the exam,
we will empty out the classroom. You will then file into the room
and receive a seating card that randomly assigns you to a seat. You
must sit in that seat. Friends are not permitted to sit near each
other. Try to avoid bringing bookbags and backpacks to class.
All books, backpacks, and coats need to be put under the seat or in the
aisles at the edge of the room to keep the seating areas clear. Do
bring several #2 pencils and erasers. You are not permitted to bring
cell phones, pagers, PDAs, calculators, or similar electronic devices into
the exam room. If you are seen with such as device, your exam will be taken
and you will not be permitted to finish. When you have completed
the exam, hand all your exam materials (question sheet, blue book, etc.)
to the professor or a proctor who will at that time check your ID.
What will exams be like? Exams will consist of a combination of multiple choice and essays. Exam questions will come from the lecture and the readings. There will be a few questions on material covered in the readings but not in lecture. Exam questions will test your knowledge of the course content and will also test your reasoning skills.
Timing. Midterm exams are
80 minutes long and will be designed so that they can be easily completed
in that time.
The final exam will last 3 hours.
What if I miss an exam? Your must take all four exams. People who miss an exam should take a make-up exam at a date and time scheduled by the psychology department. If you plan to attend a make-up session, you must inform Dr. Chapman one week before the make-up session to let her know (a) what session you'll be attending and (b) which exam you will be taking (exam #1, exam #3, etc.) Make-up exams are all essay but are designed to be no more difficult than the in-class exams. The dates and times of these make-up sessions are:
| Date | Time | Place |
| Friday, February 10 | 12:00-1:20 PM | LCB 102 |
| Wednesday, March 8 | 10:20-11:40 AM | LCB 102 |
| Friday, April 7 | 12:00-1:20 PM | LCB 102 |
| Wednesday May 10 | 12:00-3:00 PM | LSH A143 |
Academic Integrity. It is assumed that students will follow standards of academic integrity. Examples of inappropriate behavior (which you should obviously avoid)
Grades
Curve: The following curve will apply to all exams and the final
course grade:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 59.999 & below | 60.000 - 69.999 | 70.000 - 76.999 | 77.000 - 79.999 | 80.000 - 86.999 | 87.000 - 89.999 | 90.000 & up |
Will the final exam be cumulative? Yes and No. On any exam I will assume that you remember material from all parts of the course. For example, a question might ask you to contrast decision making (material from a later part of the course) with logic (material from an early part). But all exams will have a strong emphasis on material covered in the most recent 25% of the course.
What if I have a question about my exam grade?
Answers
to essay questions will be posted on the web page (similar to
the practice exam questions), but multiple choice
answers will not be posted (you need to see the TA for those.) If
you would
like to go over any of your answers to the exam
questions, please see the TA during office hours or make a separate
appointment. The TA has the multiple choice
question sheet and your response card and will let you compare your answers
to
the key. Unfortunately, you may not keep
the question sheet or answer key. (Multiple choice questions are time consuming
to
construct, and we need to be able to re-use some
of the questions in later years.) The TA will also discuss your essay
answers
with you, if you have questions. If you
think that your answer to a question was correct, even though the answer
key says it is
incorrect, please submit your concern in writing
(or via e-mail) to the TA. By taking these concerns in writing, we
are able to
respond in a more consistent and fair manner
(e.g., give the same response to everyone who raises a particular concern).
Are there any extra credit opportunities? Exams may contain an extra credit questions or two. No other extra credit options are available.
I'm registered for section 3 but would like
to take an exam with the section 2 class due to a scheduling conflict.
May I do this? You may do
this if you get advance approval from Dr. Chapman or the TA.
How will my course grade be computed? Your final grade on the course will be computed as follows:
Final grade = .25(M1) + .25(M2) + .25(M3) + .35(FE) - .10(worst exam), where
M1 = midterm 1 score,
M2 = midterm 2 score,
M3 =midterm 3 score,
FE = final exam score, and
worst exam = the exam on which you scored
lowest.
Why are we using this confusing grading formula?
This formula gives less weight to your worst score. This means that
if
you score poorly on one exam, it will have less impact on your grade
than the other exams. This is similar to a policy of
dropping your worst score except that istead of dropping the worst
score altogether, (0 weight) we give it reduced weight (.15
instead of .25 for a midterm or .25 instead of .35 for the final).
Consider an example:
| Andrea | Bert | |
| Midterm 1 | 90 | 84 |
| Midterm 2 | 94 | 85 |
| Midterm 3 | 65 | 87 |
| Final Exam | 92 | 82 |
Andrea gets As on all the exams except Midterm 3, which is her worst score. Her final grade would be:
final grade = .25(90) + .25(94) + .25(65) + .35(92) - .10(65) = 88, a B+ grade
Note that this is the same as
final grade = .25(90) + .25(94) + .15(65) + .35(92) = 88
which shows that the low score gets less weight than the other exams.
Andrea's final score of 88 is better than the straight
(unweighted) average of the four exam scores (85) because the poor
score is weighted less.
Bert gets Bs on all the exams. His final exam score of 82 is his
worse score (although it's quite similar to this other scores).
His final grade would be:
final grade = .25(84) + .25(85) + .25(87) + .35(82) - .10(82) = 84.5, a B grade
Bert's final score of 84.5 is about the same as the straight (unweighted)
average of the four exam scores. This is because his
four scores are so similar.