This page exhibits the histogram of the statitistical distribution of final grades of students in Physics 116A during the Fall 2019 academic quarter at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Course grades
Course grades were based on a cumulative course average that were appropriately weighted based on the scores of the submitted homeworks, the midterm exam and the final exam. A histogram of the course grades is shown below:
Letter grades were based on the cumulative course average, which were weighted according to: 45% of the averaged homework scores (9 1/2 problem sets with the low score dropped); 20% of the midterm exam score; and 35% of the final exam score. If the lowest homework score was the half problem set, then in addition to dropping that score, half of the second lowest score was also dropped before computing the homework average.
The cumulative course average was then converted into a letter grade according to the following approximate numerical ranges: A+ (92--100); A (86.5--92); A- (81.5--86.5); B+ (75.5--81.5); B (70--75.5); B- (64.5--70); C+ (59--64.5); C(53---59); C- (47.5--53); D(39--47.5); F (0--39). Here is the statistical summary of the distribution of the cumulative course averages:
mean: 72.8 median: 74.0 standard deviation: 14.6 high: 94.5 low : 16.2
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Last Updated:December 17, 2019