Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

The second final exam I had on the first day of the last week of classes, as I mentioned last time, was DIFEREQ. For this one, I allowed it to be open notes again, because, unlike in their Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism classes, where it is mostly just substituting values in formulas, here it is really all about knowing the method of solving the differential equations.

The only hitch was since the students concentrated their review on the last three methods, they were having a difficult time when in fact the equation could be solved using the earlier, easier methods.

For example, if the variables of the equation were completely separable, then when they try to see if it is exact, the partial derivatives would both come out as zero.

I also impressed on them that one of the last methods discussed, that determines the integrating factor, could be used for any equation. But they were having a more difficult time getting the derivative of the supposedly exact equation after solving for the integrating factor and multiplying it to the original form.

Two days later, the same students were my examinees again in the INELMLA exam. But before this, there were already students (not just Deiv, although he was the first to ask) who wanted to find out about the possibility of being exempted.

Looking at the results of their first three exams though, which for most were promisingly high then took a sharp dip in score towards the end, I had to change my grading system from 55-35 just so that everyone one have a chance to pass in the finals.

The 55-35 system says that the higher percentage of two requirements (average of long exams and finals) would be given 55% of the final grade, while the lower would get 35%. But using this system, there were people who needed more than 100%, sometimes more than 200% to pass.

So I had to adjust, and ended up with 70-20. With this division, in fact, the bulk of the students only needed between 55% and 70% in the finals to pass, while a handful, had to merely get 3% to 8% to get a one point zero.
Thus, everything they could answer in the finals beyond that was just to get a higher passing grade.

Since my passing cut off for this subject is 50%, then it was also easy to announce that those who get fifty percent or above may not take the finals. Only a third of the students given this opportunity opted for this though. The rest, I guess, wanted to go for the best possible grade.

And session 731 gets a failing grade here. Class dismissed.