<p>I'm taking math103 right now. The midterms are pretty insane (difficult + not enough time).</p>
<p>I keep hearing from people who have taken it in the past that the final basically determines your grade. Can anyone shed some light on whether this is true or not?</p>
<p>Does anyone know the actual formula the math department uses to determine grades after everything is all said and done?</p>
<p>Nah the math 103 exams aren’t that bad, especially since it’s curved. If you studied hard and it ends up being difficult for you, chances are you will still be in the “A” range even with something like a 70%.
And yes the final is really important. I think the total cumulative points was 550 and the final takes up like 200 or sth. Not 100% sure about this tho</p>
<p>It determines your grade to an extent. For example:</p>
<p>1) If you did average on the exams and did your homework and you aced the final. And by aced I mean like a standard deviation or two above the median. Then you would probably get an A. Even if you went into the final with a B or something. </p>
<p>2) If you didn’t do any of the homeworks. Failed the exams. But aced the final, then you would probably not get an A. But you might get an above average grade if you did really well. </p>
<p>3) If your performance on the final was on par with your performance in the course (which is true most of the time), then you’ll end up with the grade you were expecting. </p>
<p>But yes, you are right in that the final counts for a lot and you can probably get some sympathy points if you did really well on it.</p>
<p>The number of A’s that the prof can give out is equal to the number of A’s that are earned on the final. Note that that is a curved A, so they use natural separations along the grading scale when looking at the final exam scores. It depends on the prof, but when I took it the final was 50% of my grade. So for example, if 1/3 of exam takers got an A on the final, the top 1/3 of the class considering hw, midterms and final cumulative points would get an A.</p>