Upper Division Courses with only 100 points possible

[neskalee]

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Have any of you ever taken UD courses that had only 100 pts possible overall?
All of my upper division anthro courses are like this across the subdisciplines (linguistic, cultural, biological and archaeological) and normally the points are highly concentrated into 3-4 assignments, normally a term paper and midterm/final, also we NEVER get extra credit. Now that I've begun talking to others in different majors we seem to be the exception with everyone else getting 600-1000 points dispersed out through homework, tests, quizzes, etc. Been scoping out upper division science courses for my school and they all have about 750 widely dispersed.

Just curious

 

[sully677]

Nope...that's odd. The lowest I have had is ~400 points give or take!

 

[neskalee]

Nope...that's odd. The lowest I have had is ~400 points give or take!

Honestly I took my first UD courses in Fall 2008 and they've all been in anthropology so my opinion was entirely skewed. I honestly thought that this was the norm for UD.

 

[brooklynblunder]

extra credit in college? didn't know that existed.

i also don't get this thing about points. you can just break them down into %tage points and weigh each assignment and z-score them

 

[apumic]

I've had classes like that. Quite a few, actually, that were 100 pts exactly w/o EC or anything along those lines. They can be a bit difficult but not a whole lot different from the 750-pt class w/o EC...

 

[neskalee]

I've had classes like that. Quite a few, actually, that were 100 pts exactly w/o EC or anything along those lines. They can be a bit difficult but not a whole lot different from the 750-pt class w/o EC...

I think they are extremely different. Every point you lose on an exam or paper is 1% of your final grade. Especially when there are only 3 assignments total. Thats 33%ish a pop.

 

[rockymhs]

I think they are extremely different. Every point you lose on an exam or paper is 1% of your final grade. Especially when there are only 3 assignments total. Thats 33%ish a pop.

Then miss only 3 points per assignements, and you will be fine.

 

[Compass]

One of the physics classes at my high school had a 60,000 point final. Each question was worth 6000 points or something, and there was probably about 5000 extra credit points.

 

[metallica81788]

I just finished taking this freshman honors seminar on human response to disasters (as a senior 🙄) and it only had 100pts total.

Paper was worth 30, midterm 20, final 25, etc...

 

[DirtyJustice]

My econometrics class is worth 100 points right now. Each midterm is worth 20 points.

It is no different than any other class. 90-100% is still an A. You just lose less points for a wrong answer.

 

[apumic]

I think they are extremely different. Every point you lose on an exam or paper is 1% of your final grade. Especially when there are only 3 assignments total. Thats 33%ish a pop.

Then don't lose points off assignments. I mean, no, you're probably not going to end up w/ a 99.35% in the class but as long as you keep it above the 93% line, you're good. It offers little grace but I think that makes grades far more revealing than the pansy grading some instructors introduce!

 

[neskalee]

Then don't lose points off assignments. I mean, no, you're probably not going to end up w/ a 99.35% in the class but as long as you keep it above the 93% line, you're good. It offers little grace but I think that makes grades far more revealing than the pansy grading some instructors introduce!

I wasn't speaking negatively about it really. I have gotten 7 A's and 1 A- for these courses. Still I think its much more difficult to have it all be condensed and have each point on each assignment count for so much of the final grade vs courses I've taken that are heavy in points. I was just wondering if it was confined to my discipline or my department etc.

 

[CapnCrunch]

I think they are extremely different. Every point you lose on an exam or paper is 1% of your final grade. Especially when there are only 3 assignments total. Thats 33%ish a pop.

Whats different than having a class with 300 points total comprising of 2 exams (mid term and final) and a paper? Each one is worth 33.33% also. It's just percents and scaling...

 

[JJMrK]

Whats different than having a class with 300 points total comprising of 2 exams (mid term and final) and a paper? Each one is worth 33.33% also. It's just percents and scaling...

Yep. 👍

 

[neskalee]

Whats different than having a class with 300 points total comprising of 2 exams (mid term and final) and a paper? Each one is worth 33.33% also. It's just percents and scaling...

Because, if your exam is 33% of your final grade and it is worth 100 points you have a lot more wiggle room if you miss a question or two. I'm assuming in this scenario there are a lot more questions otherwise what's the point of making it such a high point value. In the classes I've taken with 600+ points you'll end up with a multi choice exam or something similar with each question equalling one point and then discussion questions worth 5 eac etc.

Regarding the courses I'm discussing with only 100 points overall: If for example the midterm is 33% of our grade it normally (for my classes) consists of either less or an equal amount of questions relative to its % value. One midterm I had was 25 questions at 1 pt per each for 33%, or I had another that was 25 points at 1 point per each question and was 25% percent of my grade, so 1 pt = 1%. So if you miss one question because you didn't understand a concept you ultimately lose 1% or more of your final grade, whereas with the 100 point exam you could reasonably miss a lot more without it bringing down your overall grade that much. (IE you'd need to lose 30 points to drop it 1%)

I'm not whining necessarily because it does up my investment in each paper/test and I do considerably well in courses oriented in this fashion, but what I'm really saying is that its more difficult/leaves less room for error then projects with inflated point values. Hope that made sense.

 

[ButterKnife]

Regarding the courses I'm discussing with only 100 points overall: If for example the midterm is 33% of our grade it normally (for my classes) consists of either less or an equal amount of questions relative to its % value. One midterm I had was 25 questions at 1 pt per each for 33%, or I had another that was 25 points at 1 point per each question and was 25% percent of my grade, so 1 pt = 1%. So if you miss one question because you didn't understand a concept you ultimately lose 1% or more of your final grade, whereas with the 100 point exam you could reasonably miss a lot more without it bringing down your overall grade that much. (IE you'd need to lose 30 points to drop it 1%)

Ohh. Yeah my chemistry midterm was worth 30% of my grade, it had 22 multiple choice questions..

 

[bigal40]

One of the physics classes at my high school had a 60,000 point final. Each question was worth 6000 points or something, and there was probably about 5000 extra credit points.

Yeah, all of my classes have anywhere from 2-4million point finals, homework is usually worth about 1mil also.

But the point is it doesn't really matter how many points you can get it could be 100 it could be 5 million all that matters is the percentage of available points that you earn. Alot of my classes have 3 or 4 exams and that's it(except some engineering classes have like 10% of the grade based on HW) - but whether the exams are 25 pts each, 100pts each, or 1000pts each doesn't matter.

 

[neskalee]

Yeah, all of my classes have anywhere from 2-4million point finals, homework is usually worth about 1mil also.

But the point is it doesn't really matter how many points you can get it could be 100 it could be 5 million all that matters is the percentage of available points that you earn. Alot of my classes have 3 or 4 exams and that's it(except some engineering classes have like 10% of the grade based on HW) - but whether the exams are 25 pts each, 100pts each, or 1000pts each doesn't matter.

Yes it does. If there are a higher number of questions worth less on a test that is work 100 pts you have a better chance of getting a higher grade. Especially if questions vary in their topic. If one topic is addressed in 15 2 pt multi choice questions on an 100 pt exam vs one 1 pt question on a 25 pt exam and they both equate to 25% of the final grade, obviously you can succeed better with the first example because you have 15 chances worth a tiny amt vs 1 question worth 1% of your grade.

Unless of course there are less questions, like in butterknife's example. Just speaking from my own experience normally a 100 pt test in a course with 300-1000 pts has more than 25 questions on it.

 

[Tatastrophy]

i also don't get this thing about points. you can just break them down into %tage points and weigh each assignment and z-score them

+1 this

and jeez you people with measly 22 question exam...I took an inorganic exam yesterday...total points 178, no question was worth more than 3 points, in fact majority were 1 (like 2/3 of the exam) oh and there were only ~10 multiple choice questions.
I say everyone count your blessings....for everyone saying their exam is ridiculous there is a person whose exam is actually even more ridiculous.

 

[bigal40]

Yes it does. If there are a higher number of questions worth less on a test that is work 100 pts you have a better chance of getting a higher grade. Especially if questions vary in their topic. If one topic is addressed in 15 2 pt multi choice questions on an 100 pt exam vs one 1 pt question on a 25 pt exam and they both equate to 25% of the final grade, obviously you can succeed better with the first example because you have 15 chances worth a tiny amt vs 1 question worth 1% of your grade.

Unless of course there are less questions, like in butterknife's example. Just speaking from my own experience normally a 100 pt test in a course with 300-1000 pts has more than 25 questions on it.

I'm not following your example, I think you are saying if there are less questions overal in the class there will be less questions per topic so if you forget one thing about a subject you have a higher chance of missing it. So a class with less questions might be harder, but I don't understand how that has anything to do with how many points there are.

 

[neskalee]

I'm not following your example, I think you are saying if there are less questions overal in the class there will be less questions per topic so if you forget one thing about a subject you have a higher chance of missing it. So a class with less questions might be harder, but I don't understand how that has anything to do with how many points there are.

That is what I'm saying.

Its just been my experience that exams with more points have more questions. With topics dispersed more evenly. Could just be my slanted view.

 

[HolySmokes]

My Discrete Math class was out of a total of 55 points.

2 10-point tests
1 15-point final
5 4-point quizzes

The grading was ridiculous, though. He would take off .1, .25, etc points from the 10 point test. I never understood why he didn't just make it out of 100.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

+1 this

and jeez you people with measly 22 question exam...I took an inorganic exam yesterday...total points 178, no question was worth more than 3 points, in fact majority were 1 (like 2/3 of the exam) oh and there were only ~10 multiple choice questions.
I say everyone count your blessings....for everyone saying their exam is ridiculous there is a person whose exam is actually even more ridiculous.

I think the point is that a 22-question exam is much worse in terms of grades than a 178-question exam. You miss a single question on the first and you've already lost five percentage points. Miss a question on the second and you've only lost half of a percentage point.

 

[bigal40]

I think the point is that a 22-question exam is much worse in terms of grades than a 178-question exam. You miss a single question on the first and you've already lost five percentage points. Miss a question on the second and you've only lost half of a percentage point.

But on the 178 question exam there are 5 times as many questions to miss, additionally this means the professor must be asking much more detailed questions to make a test that long.

 

[Rankik]

My current Sociology class is 120 points total, 3 exams, each worth 40 points, that's it. Other then that, all of my other classes have been in the range of 500-1000.

 

[circulus vitios]

I think the point is that a 22-question exam is much worse in terms of grades than a 178-question exam. You miss a single question on the first and you've already lost five percentage points. Miss a question on the second and you've only lost half of a percentage point.

It's not an upper level class, but my general chemistry class has 100 point exams. The exams are usually 3 pages front and back, but each question is worth 3 points at the minimum (ie, 3%.) It's real fun to instantly drop your exam grade 3% when you mess up on a simple question. 😡