There are two major exams in my classes:

• The Midterm Exam is a fifty question (50), multiple-choice test. The exam questions are taken from the quizzes that predate the Midterm Exam.  All quiz questions prior to any exam date are eligible for an exam, including those called "extra" questions.
  
  
• The Final Exam is a one-hundred question (100), multiple-choice test, the questions for which are also taken from all the semester's quizzes and the Midterm Exam.  It is comprehensive.
  
  

There will be an Exam Preview during a class session preceding each exam.  During that preview:

• Any math problems on the exam will be completed as examples for the class.  
  • The math review problems may not use the actual values that will be used in the test, but the procedure used to solve each problem will be the same as the procedure for the math on the exam.
    
    
• All the questions on the quizzes leading up to the exam will be reviewed so that the correct answers are communicated to all of the students present.
  
  
• The instructor will answer student questions concerning the exam and the prior quizzes.

Each student will get a list of all the grades earned to the date of each preview session in order to review them to determine if the scores on the list are correct.

• Each student will have the opportunity to bring graded documents to class in order to have a mistakenly recorded grade corrected.
  • This opportunity will be available up to and including the meeting just before the Final Exam.
  • Documents that do not have a grade from the instructor (are ungraded) will not be accepted.
    

Exam grades are based on questions answered correctly.  

• Each question of a fifty-question exam is worth 2 percentage points (from a total of 100%).  For a one-hundred question exam, each question is worth 1 percentage point (from a total of 100%).
  
  
• An analysis of the questions missed by the highest few test scores may be used to determine if all of the grades should be adjusted to compensate for possible problematic questions.
  • This compensation may occur only if there appear to be problems with exam questions and, should it occur, no student will receive a score greater than 100%.
    
    

After each test's answer sheet has been returned, there will be class time devoted to a review of the test.

• During that time, students may get answers to questions they missed and challenge test questions they think may have problems.
  
  
• The number of points that a student may gain by successfully challenging questions will be increased only if the successful challenges exceed the number of points that may have already been adjusted, as described above.
  
  
• During the review of the Final Exam, the students will receive their overall grades that will be recorded for the class.
  • The "overall grades" distributed will consist of the final grade and the cumulative grades for quizzes and other activities.  This last list will not detail every graded document.
    
    
• A review of the Final Exam may not happen if the exam is not administered before the last class meeting.  In such an instance, the review will be by appointment.  See the following section for details.
  
  

The Final Exam is scheduled to be administered one session prior to the end of the semester to allow for a review of that exam.

• Once the test has been reviewed, any documents (e.g., tests and answer sheets) that remain unclaimed by the time the instructor leaves the classroom on the last official day of class will be destroyed, removing the possibility of the student reviewing graded papers (including the final exam).
  
  • The Final Exam answer sheet may be taken home, but not the question pages.
    
    
• If, for unanticipated and unavoidable reasons (illness, inclement weather, etc.), the final exam cannot be held before the last class meeting, students may make an appointment to see the instructor during the first two weeks of the following semester to review the test and obtain their answer sheet.
  • After the first two weeks, any unclaimed answer sheets and other exam materials will be destroyed.
  • If the instructor, who is a temporary (contingent) worker, is no longer employed by the college, any review is likely impossible.
    
    

Opportunities to review the math used to calculate the grade are available to each student during the semester by using the Grade Calculation Sheet on the Test Materials page of each class' web site, and/or by seeing the instructor during his office time.

• A grade calculated early in the semester may change substantially because a large portion of the grade occurs late in the term.

The final grade is a combination of weighted values that are described in the class syllabus.

• Once the final grade has been discussed and challenged in the Final Exam review session, no grade will be adjusted further (*See Cal. Ed. Code §76224 (a)).
  
  • If a student, for example, is two-tenths of one percent below the cutoff for an overall "A" grade for the class, that student will have earned a "B" for the class unless they can prove an instructor error.
    
    • The grade cutoff table is outlined on the syllabus and the cutoff values will be followed.
      
      

The grading rubric and timelines above may change due to unanticipated circumstances, such as illness, weather, natural or human-caused disasters, unforeseen events and/or school-initiated changes, etc.

*(a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a community college district, the grade given to each student shall be the grade determined by the instructor of the course and the determination of the student's grade by the instructor, in the absence of mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetence, shall be final.

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