Delta State University
SOC 101: Principles of Sociology
Spring Semester 2005
Explanation of Quiz Grades
Each quiz is worth a total of 10 points. You are allowed to drop the lowest quiz grade at the end of the semester, so the total for both quizzes is 20 points, or 1/5 of your final grade.
Unless otherwise specified, each quiz question is worth an equal point value, so if there are twenty questions on the quiz, each question is worth 0.5 points.
Correct responses get full credit.
If you fail to respond to a question, you get no credit - zero points - for that question.
If you answer a question, but the response
is incorrect, you get partial credit, on a sliding scale. For the first
incorrect response, you get 50% credit (e.g. 0.25 for a question worth 0.5
points); for the second incorrect response, you get 45% credit; for the third
you get 40%, and so on. All incorrect responses after the first 10 get no
credit.
In some cases, if your response is not the
correct response but is close (e.g. on fill-in-the-blank questions), then you
may get partial credit, generally 70% of full value (so if full credit is 0.5 points, partial credit would be 0.35
points).
You should check the scoring on returned quizzes carefully to be sure you got proper credit for all of your responses, and to be sure the final score was added up correctly. Let the instructor know if you find an error.
You can challenge any of the questions if
you wish; that is, if you believe a question was ambiguous or you can make a
good case for the response you gave to any question, even though it was marked
incorrect, you can submit a challenge to the instructor. Write a note with
an explanation for your response, and why you believe it should be correct.
If the instructor finds your argument to have merit, you will get full credit
for the response (and if your challenge is particularly thoughtful, you may get
additional credit). Be aware that if you challenge the question, and the
instructor finds your challenge to be invalid or to show that you simply do not
understand the material, he may also opt to lower your score.