Late Paper Assignments, Late Email participation, Late Tests and PENALTIES

1. Late software work and weekly participation messages. You will receive credit for your software work even if it is completed after the due date (which is Friday at 5 p.m. of the week that section is listed in the calendar.) Obviously it is crucial for it to be completed before you take a test on the material. However, to remain enrolled in the class, you have to be communicating with me as required through the weekly participation email messages. This is so important that it is a part of your grade. The weekly participation grade can be earned ONLY by either finishing the required software work by 5 p.m. on the Friday of the week it is due OR by sending in the required message at the right time.

It is your responsiblitity to keep your email working so that you know what is being sent to you and so that your messages come through to your instructor when you send them. If you do not receive an answer to your email message within a couple of days, or if you do not receive an email message from the me at least once a week, you must inquire immediately. Send me another email AND call and leave a message on my phone.

2. Late Paper Assignments . It is important for you to be well-prepared for each test. Paper assignments to be submitted for a grade MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE taking the test over that material. The deadline for putting it into the mail is the same day as the deadline for the test (except that the material for the last test must have to be submitted earlier if you use US mail.) If, because of the hours of your postal service, or a holiday, it isn't postmarked until the next day, that will be OK. If I give you permission to take a test late, that also includes permission to submit the paper assignments late, too. Paper assignments submitted later than this will be subject to a substantial grade penalty, which will partly depend on the number of days late.

3. Late Tests. There is an approximately one-week period after you should have finished the material before the deadline for the test on that material. That allows for students to take the test "on time" even if they are quite a bit behind in the course. If you want permission to take one of Tests 1-4 later than that, you must fill out the Late Test Request form asking for an extension. I will reply to that form within one weekday. (If you don't get a reply within one weekday, please email me or contact me another way another way because something must have gone wrong.) As a general rule, there is a penalty of 5% credit on the test overall for every day (Mon-Fri.) that it is late. I may waive that in some circumstances, based on your work in the course so far and your answers to the questions on the form. However, if you take a test late without having filled gotten permission in advance from me, via my response to your request form, there is an automatic 50% credit penalty on your grade.

Special discussion about the Final Exam.

Regardless of these rules, you should NEVER start a test unless you have at least 1 1/2 hours to finish it. If you go to the Testing Center on the last day, and there is a line, and you will only have one hour to take the test, then DON'T TAKE IT. (Whenever you take the test, you will get the grade you earn on it at that time.) Instead, go home and go back the following morning when the Testing Center opens. You have my automatic permission to take it on the following day if you go to the Testing Center when it opens. If you can't do that, then you must fill out the form asking to take the test late, as described in the previous paragraph. So you may need to rearrange your schedule to accomodate going to the Testing Center the following day. A better choice is not to wait until the afternoon of the last day.

4. If you can't get all the work done to finish the course, there are some options available so that you don't get an F. However, all of those options require that you have worked diligently on the course throughout most of the semester. It is particularly true in this course that some students simply need more than one semester's worth of work to adequately learn this material. If that seems to be true, please discuss it with me early in the semester and we will together develop a timetable and plan for you to succeed in learning some of the material, so that when you take the course again, you can concentrate on the remaining material.

Last updated September 19, 2009 . Mary Parker