There will be a midterm test in the course and a number of quizzes. Together they are worth 200 points. Homework will be weighted at the end of the semester on a scale of 0 to 200. The final exam is two and a half hours long and is worth 200 points.

Adjustments to grade can be made based on class attendance and participation, up to one "grade level," in the sense that a grade of B could be raised to a B+ or lowered to a C+, etc. Absences in excess of 5 incur a penalty (up to one "grade level" in extreme cases) while perfect attendance is good for one-fifth of a letter grade.

Homework will be collected at the beginning of the class on which it is due. If you come in late, please leave your homework on the desk as you come in. If you know you will be absent ahead of time on a day homework is due, put the homework in my mailbox before the time it is due. There will be a penalty for late homework, especially if it is too late for it to be graded along with the other papers. Once graded homework has been returned to the class, later homework will not be accepted.

I will try to schedule tests at a time convenient for everyone, so I hope the following two paragraphs will not have to come into play. ...

Years of experience have taught me that there is no perfect way to handle absences for tests and homework. The following system seems to be as good as any. Please do not ask for exceptions from it; if I were to grant them, I would merely be moving to another imperfect system, usually inferior to the one described here.

I will not "drop the lowest test grade", nor give make-up tests. If you are absent for a test, please give me a note explaining why, and for you the questions on the final exam that correspond to the material covered by the test you missed will be used to compute your grade for that test. (Thus these questions are counted twice, but with different point values: if the questions on the final exam that serve for your test grade have a total value of 50 points as far as the final exam is concerned, they will each count double for the test grade.)

I will not "drop the lowest n (> 0) homework grades". To allow for absences, etc., I will be giving out lots of extra credit problems, and the grading scale for homework will be at least this leninent:
170 and up A
155 - 169 B+
140 - 154 B
125 - 139 C+
110 - 124 C
95 - 109 D+
80 - 94 D
Grading scales on the tests will be somewhat closer to a "90 - 100 A, etc." scale, but will vary according to the difficulty of the tests.

I am generous with partial credit, so show all your work on homework and tests.