Exam No.

1 Statistics
ME274 – Spring 2009
Curving of grades: We do not curve (normalize) scores on individual exam scores.
Instead we wait until final course scores are known and then set the grade breakpoints
on the final course scores. Typically these breakpoints are close to a straight scale with
some adjustments downward when needed. Do not forget that homeworks, quizzes,
fundamentals exam and blog participation account for 25% of your course grade.

Exam averages: Comparing your exam score with the course average for the exam
does not provide you with a good indication of your performance. Recall that our exam
score weightings are nonlinear (25% and 50% weighting on the lower and higher,
respectively, of the midterm and final exam). If you shoot for an “average” score on your
exam scores, you could easily end up with a course grade lower than a C. People typically
do better on the final exam (since they are seeing the material for the second time).
Because of this, the final ends up with a higher weighting for many in the class. With this
change, the average score on an individual exam loses significance. Having said that,
however, the average (mean) for this exam is 72.2%.

Grade distributions: The better indicators to you on your standing in the class are
the grade distributions on individual problems. These are provided below. Use these to
see how you stand on each problem individually. Try to learn from your mistakes on any
given problem so that you can improve on these topics and not make similar mistakes
when you see them again in future work in the course.

Total number of exams: 235

Problem No. 1 grade distribution (20 points max):

18 - 20: 115
16 - 17: 29
14 - 15: 21
12 - 13: 16
12 > 54
Problem No. 2 grade distribution (20 points max):
18 - 20: 128
16 - 17: 32
14 - 15: 20
12 - 13: 23
12 > 32
Problem No. 3 grade distribution (20 points max):
18 - 20: 22
16 - 17: 44
14 - 15: 15
12 - 13: 63
12 > 91
TOTAL exam grade distribution (60 points max):
54 - 60: 36 (15.3%)
48 - 53: 52 (22.1%)
42 - 47: 57 (24.2%)
36 - 41: 41 (17.4%)
36 > 49 (20.9%)