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Percentages

There will be, as you may have guessed, lots of problems. Actually, there will only be a few problems, but they'll seem like a lot. The structure and organization of the course will be (approximately!):

50% of grade Homework.
20% Take-Home Midterm Exam.
20% Take-Home Final Exam.
10% Research/Computing project.
In more detail, Homework is Homework, the Exams are Homework (fancied up a bit) and the Research Project is described below. These figures are only approximate. I may make homework worth a little more or less, but this is about right. Actual grades will be assigned based on performance and experience, curved (if you will) not just across your class but previous graduate classes I have taught the same material to as well. It will be very easy to pass cleanly (B- or better, in a graduate class) if you've done all the homework and perhaps less easy to get an A.

Note also that grades aside, there is a fundamental need to pass qualifiers. Qualifiers are much easier than the problems we cover in this class, but to comfortably pass it is essential that you learn the physics associated with all of the problems and methodologies. Do not miss learning the large scale, intuitive ideas in physics covered (the `forest') in favor of mastering all sorts of methods for PDEs or transformations for specific problems (the `trees'). I will do my best to help convey these in lecture, but you should read on your own, ask questions, and so on.



next up previous contents
Next: Research Project: Up: Basis of Grade Previous: Basis of Grade   Contents
Robert G. Brown 2007-12-28