Each day of class that you attend is worth 0.25 % of your grade, up to a maximum of 4 %. This does not include holidays, inservice days, or days where the entire class period is devoted to an exam. Typically in a term this leaves at least one absence that would not have a direct effect on your grade. However missing class will hurt your chances for success on exams because you will not get the same attention that your classmates had.

Most of your homework for this class is to be submitted online through the free program WeBWorK. For details, see Section 8. Collectively, all web assignments are worth 17 % of your final grade. For every web assignment that you do not submit (or have a poor score for), I will replace that score with the score you get on your next exam.

Note that most students who skip doing homework fail the exams. Students who complete the homework assignments to close to 100 % earn around 83 % on exams on average. With this type of homework, the only thing that prevents you from earning 100 % is not starting early enough. So please begin homework early.

Each week a selection of the web assignment exercises will be chosen to be be written up formally and submitted the beginning of the net week (Monday or Tuesday depending on when your section meets). Each written assignment is worth 1 % of your grade for a total of 9 %. See Written Assignments for the specifics.

Web assignments are due whenever WeBWorK says they are due for full credit. There is no way to get credit for a late web assignment. After the due date, you may still do the exercises and check your work, but doing so will not increase your score. After the due date, full walk-through solutions are available for problems if you re-visit the problem. A reminder: any WeBWorK score can be overwritten by your next exam score, if that is to your benefit.

Written assignments that are received late may receive a zero. If I have already graded the stack of everyone else's papers, then I do not have time to go back and grade any more. You may try to turn in something late, and if I have not yet graded everyone else's, then I can grade yours.

Please refer to the Calendar for exam dates, and Exams for details about what is covered on each exam. Exams 1, 2, 3, and 4 are worth 10 %, 15 %, 20 %, and 25 % of your grade, respectively.