FAQ list for Spring 2017 AST 2002 Section 0002
Make-ups
Q: I have to be out of town on a day that
we have class. Can I make up the
in-class work that I missed that day?
A: Only if your reason for being out of town counts as an excused
absence. An "excused" absense is one that is due to a religious
holiday, a UCF-sanctioned trip, a medical problem, or a death in
the immediate family.
Q: I had transportation problems on a
day we had class. Can I make up the in-class work that
I missed that day?
A: No, missing your bus or having a car breakdown doesn't
really count as an excused absence.
Q: How do I go about actually making up
the in-class work?
A: Show me documentation about your absence, and look up
on the course websites what you missed. You have
7 days from the date of absence
to make up the work and turn it in to me.
Generally, if you don't turn it in in a timely fashion,
I can't give you the points for it.
Q:I've already bought a plane ticket and
made travel plans for a day that we have class.
Can I make up the in-class work
that I miss on that day?
A: Sorry, no, unless it's UCF-sanctioned travel.
I expect you to be in class at every class period.
Q: I registered for the class at the end
of the first week, so my first lecture wasn't until the
second week. What should I do about the first week's
assignments?
A: First, come talk to me to tell me that you are in
fact a late-registrant. Then check out the websites for info about
what we did
that first week before you registered. Do the assignments
as soon as you can and turn them in to me by the end of the third week
of the semester.
Exams
Q:I've already bought a plane ticket and
made travel plans for a date on which we have an exam.
Can I make up the exam on that day or take it early?
A: For security and fairness
reasons I can't have exam questions "out there" before the
exam time. So you can't take it early. For any of the first three
exams, there will be a make-up day/time scheduled; you have to take
the make-up test at that sitting. If you can't make that time,
then the missed exam will automatically become the exam that
gets dropped and not counted toward your grade.
Q:I was sick on a day that we had an exam.
I've got a doctor's note; can I make up the exam?
A: Yes, but only on the day/time that's scheduled for the
make-up. Even in the case of an excused absence, you only
get one chance to do the make-up. Otherwise, the missed
exam automatically becomes the exam that gets dropped and
not counted toward your grade.
Q: I'm on a UCF athletic squad and I
have to go to a meet/game/match on a day of an exam.
Can I make up the exam or take it early?
A: You can't take the exam early,
but yes you can make it up,
but only on the day/time that's scheduled for the
make-up. Even in the case of an excused absence, you only
get one chance to do the make-up. Otherwise, the missed
exam automatically becomes the exam that gets dropped and
not counted toward your grade.
Q: Why don't you do a review before
each exam?
A: Partially because that would mean 4 fewer classes available
for you to learn material. But the real reason is that I don't
think you need a review. Before every exam, study your
homework assignments, your in-class assignments, the
lectures, the online tutorials.
The exam questions come from that, not verbatim, but
they will be similar.
Q: Generally, what's going to be on an exam?
A: There are basically 2 kinds of questions. Some questions
just ask you to recall factoids or definitions that you've memorized.
Others ask you to apply what you've learned to a new situation.
If you like memorization of trivia, you like the first kind,
but alas I must assess your learning of the second kind too.
Most questions are drawn from the homeworks, in-class assignments,
and lectures. Some questions are drawn from the main textbook.
Q: Can taking the final hurt my grade?
A: No, taking the final cannot hurt your grade (unless
you cheat on it and I catch you doing it; then you flunk regardless).
Q: I missed one of the first three exams and
didn't do a make-up.
You say in the syllabus that
skipping the final won't hurt my grade; does that mean
that the exam I missed doesn't count?
A: Well, no, missing that earlier exam does hurt your grade in
the sense that at the time you take the final, your course
grade is probably a D or an F (because you got a zero
on that missed exam). At that point, skipping the final
won't hurt your grade any further -- you'll still have that D or F.
For what it's worth, it's very hard to get a C or higher in
the course if you only have 2 exams with non-zero scores.
Q: Do you curve exams?
A: Not always. I have a sense for what a 'typical'
student should know, and if the exam results indicate
a true lack of preparation, then I'm not going to erase
that problem by curving. On the other hand, if everyone
has done well on an exam (by my standard), then I have no problem
giving everyone an A.
Q: I only got 55% of the questions right
on my first exam! Did I fail?
A: Perhaps but perhaps not. After every exam I will tell you
that so-and-so many correct answers corresponds to
so-and-so many points toward your course grade. If for
this exam, 55% right corresponds to 55 points, then yes that's an F.
If 55% rights corresponds to 75 points, then no you didn't fail.
Q: Why are your exams so hard that the
class average is [whatever it happens to be]?
A: The exams are indeed challenging. However, in the
end I have to put everyone's course grade into the
scheme setup in the syllabus, so if
the exam averages are 50%, it's very unlikely
that I'm going to give the entire class Fs.
(Unless of course I see by the exam results that
there has been widespread flagrant lack of preparation.)
Furthermore, I have to attempt to keep the overall
difficulty of the exams approximately the same.
Also note that when it comes right down to it, the whole
"60%-70% is a D, 70%-80% is a C, etc..." construct is
artificial. It means that an instructor has to know
a priori that the exam is going to yield an average of 75%.
It is not always obvious that an exam is going to result
in such an average. So why not just forget about it and
create an exam that uses as much of the 0-100% range
as possible to differentiate between the abilities of students?
If you move past the psychological barrier of thinking that
a score of say 50% is always unambiguously automatically equivalent to
failure, then this exam philosophy is not a problem.
SmartWork
Q: When I'm registering, I can't seem to
use UNDUNIV211318 when it asks for the registration code.
What's wrong?
A: UNDUNIV211318 is the enrollment key, not the registration code. The
registration code is what comes with your textbook bundle when you buy
it new. If you bought your textbook used, or didn't buy
the textbook at all, you'll need to buy a registration code from
the SmartWork website itself, and pay for it
with a credit card. See, the SmartWork business
is a two step process. First you register for the service (using
the registration code),
and then you enroll in the course (using the enrollment key
UNDUNIV211318).
Q: I'm doing the online homework on
SmartWork but I'm having trouble actually
submitting my answers (or some other technical problem).
What should I do?
A: Often the SW tech support people will be better able
to answer technical problems than I will. So I highly recommend
contacting them. If it is
coming close to the due time of the homework, make
screen-grabs of your answers and of any other pages
that SW is showing you, and save them! That way at least
you'll have a way of showing that you actually did the
assignment.
Homework and In-Class Stuff
Q: Why isn't all the work we
do in class in the workbooks graded for credit?
A: Personpower. We wouldn't have enough of it to grade
by hand all the questions you answer in the
workbook. So we only grade a subset
of your work, usually by asking clicker questions based
on what you've done.
Q: You know that often the answers to homework
problems are available online, right?
A: Yes, I'm aware of that. I'm counting on you to be honorable
and to be motivated to learn the material honestly.
Material
Q: You're putting your lecture slides
on line, so is there any reason I need to come to class?
A: Uh, yeah, duh! You might grasp the material a lot better if you
actually see it being presented to you. Also there are all
those in-class assignments we're doing that will be easy points for you.
Finally, I'll cover non-textbook material during lecture, so you'll
want to see that explained rather than just seeing the pictures.
Course Grade
Q: I've got a 77.3% for a course grade, a B-, and
I'm just 0.2% away from the B level.
It's so close, can I just be moved up to a B?
A: I can't really do
that. That's not really fair to everyone else is it? If your performance
in the course isn't reflected in your grade, what's the point of
having grades at all? If that answer doesn't satisfy you, then
how about this: you're asking me to do something unethical by
changing your grade away from the one you earned in the course.
I won't do that. One way to make sure that this
problem doesn't happen in the first place
is to take advantage of the easy points in this course.
If you don't get the grade you want but didn't take advantage of
all that, then it's not really fair to come crying to me.
Q: I've got a 77.3% for a course grade, a B-, and
I'm just 0.2% away from the B level.
It's so close, can I just do some little bit
of extra credit so I can move up to a B?
A: I can't really do that. It's not fair to everyone else.
If I allow an extra credit, I have to give everyone the opportunity
to do it, not just one person.
Q: I'm a senior and I need to pass this
class to graduate. Can you just give me a
break?
A: I'd love to, but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. You've
got to live with the grade you earn. That said, it's actually hard
to out-and-out fail my class if you put in the effort to do the
homework and the
in-class stuff.
Q: I'm part of a group that requires me
to get a certain grade in this course if I'm to remain
a member. Can you give me a break?
A: I'd love to, but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else. You've
got to live with the grade you earn. One way to be sure this
problem doesn't
happen though is to take advantage of the easy points in this course.
If you don't get the grade you want but didn't take advantage of
all that, then it's not really fair to come crying to me.
Extra Credit
Q: I tried going to the Observatory to
do the extra credit assignment, but it was cloudy
all the time.
Can I do something else instead?
A: No, there's no substitute for the Observatory.
Unless it is cloudy at every single time during the semester
on which it is open, there's no recourse. You just have to
be diligent about going on a day when it's clear.
Q: On the Observatory extra credit
assignment, I went twice
to look through the telescopes and did the form
twice. But I still only
got a score of 70%. What gives?
A: Probably you didn't write enough description. Certain objects
have a higher standard than others. For example, you should be able
to write a pretty long and detailed paragraph about the details of the Moon.
Same for Saturn, Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, and many clusters
of stars. Check the syllabus for hints about what to do. Just because
you went multiple times doesn't influence the score -- if you
submit multiple forms, I take the best one of the batch and use
that for your grade.
Q: Can I write a short paper about
[my favorite astronomy topic] for extra credit?
A: No, unless I announce to the entire class that
this is an option for everyone. It's not fair to have
one student doing something special for extra credit
and not give that opportunity to everyone.
Also, I don't want to have
to define parameters for such an individualized
assignment and then
read the results.