Partial Credit Policy:
Since this course is about proof techniques, most of what you turn in will
be proofs. Remember that a proof is an argument meant to convince other
mathematicians of the truth of something, so that clarity and precision are
crucial. It is not enough that you understand what you are talking
about; it must be clear to others. Mathematics is a language, and your
ability to use that language correctly is what will determine whether you
are understood. Your ability to explain what you are doing will be taken
into account in awarding partial credit; if I have to guess about whether
you understood what you wrote, you will receive less credit. If you do not
include an explanation of what you have done, you will lose points as well.
Many students feel that it is better to say something, even if you
know it is wrong, in hopes of getting some partial credit; however, this
really makes you look like you don't know what you are doing. It is far
better to admit that you don't know how to do a problem and get extra help
from me, either from explanations that I write on your homework, or from
coming to see me during office hours.
If you can't do a problem, I will give you partial credit for saying "I
don't know how to do this problem" provided you give a brief explanation of
what you think it is that you don't understand; the better your
explanation, the more credit you will get.
In high-school, the grading practice frequently is to start with full
credit and take points off for things that you do wrong. This is not the
way I grade. In general, I will award points when you say something that
is correct and take off points when you say something incorrect, and
provide a final score that reflects the level of understanding exhibited in
your write up of the problem. If you say some good things and some bad
things, you may end up right back where you started. It is to your benefit
to think carefully about what you say.
I will try to write lots of comments on your work before I turn it
back. You should remember that this is to try to help you understand where
you have made errors, so if there is a lot of red ink on your paper, try
not to take this to mean that you are a terrible math student or a bad
person. It is my job to make these kinds of comments, and it is the only
way to learn where you need to work harder. Because of this, I spend most
of my time writing about what you did wrong, so you may not see as
many "good jobs" as you would like to see, and it may seem that I'm picking
on you. Remember that I am trying to help you understand where your work
is the weakest.
My marks have the following meanings:
- When you say something that I was looking for, I'll put a checkmark
next to it to indicate this. Lots of checkmarks is a good thing. Some
students have told me that in their high schools a check meant a mistake; here
it means that something is correct, so don't be confused.
- If you say something particularly well, or say something
perceptive or beyond the material that I expected you to include, I'll say
"good job" or "nice observation" or some such thing. I do not say this simply
because you got a problem right, but because you did something beyond what
I expected.
- If I say "OK" rather than giving a checkmark, this means that I'm
accepting what you say only grudgingly. Usually it means that what you
said is true but that you have not fully explained it, or that there are
subtleties that you have not seemed to grasp. It may also mean that there
is a better way of saying this, or a better reason to use. It may also
mean that what you say isn't quite true, but is wrong for technical or
subtle reasons, and I'll let it pass. You may want to ask me more about
why what you did isn't quite right.
- If I put a red circle around the problem number on your paper, that
means I have included a copy of your solution in the
notebook outside my office as an example of a
good solution for the other students to review. I will not include your
name, but if you still don't want me to include your work in the notebook,
please let me know, and I'll remove it.
As always, if you don't understand something that I've written on your
paper, or if you can't read my writing, please come see me about it and
I'll try to explain it.
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Math 99 (Fall 2000) web pages
Created: 26 Aug 2000
Last modified: 28 Aug 2000 14:49:40
Comments to: dpvc@union.edu
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