Optional Mid-Term Exam

Your final grade for this course will be determined in the following way:

Attendance and class participation 10%

Presentation #1 10%
Presentation #2 10%

Paper #1 15%
Paper #2 15%

Final Paper 40%

In the interests of being fair to all class members, I've rethought how the optional mid-term will work. So, please note that what I'm describing here differs in some important ways from how I described the mid-term last week.

For this optional mid-term, you can choose both whether or not you'd like to take the test and, if you choose to take the exam, you then can decide how much you would like the exam to count for (10% or 15%). Whatever choice you make, there is no way that taking the mid-term can result in a lowering of your final grade.

Here's how it works. If you elect to take the mid-term, you will designate on your exam booklet whether or not you'd like your score to count for 10% or 15% of your final grade.

• If you elect for your exam to count for 10% of your grade, when I am calculating your final grade for the course, I will take your two highest scores from among the scores on your two presentations and on the mid-term exam. Or, if you are happy with your score on the first presentation and on the mid-term, you will have the option to pass on the second presentation.

• If you elect for your exam to count for 15% of your grade, when I am calculating your final grade for the course, I will take your two highest scores from among the scores on your two shorter papers and on the mid-term exam.

• If you don't elect to take the mid-term, you've got Thursday off! You can use the extra time to think about what your final paper is going to be on and read ahead in the next essay we'll read by Oliver Sacks.

Please note: there will be no make-ups for this exam and there will be no extra time. The exam will begin promptly at 8:10 on Thursday and will end promptly at 9:30. This is a "no book" exam: bring only a set of pens and your best penmanship–if I can't read what you've written with ease, your score will go down.

The exam will have three parts: single sentence definitions of key terms (20 points); a short answer question (30 points); an essay question (50 points).