You’ll want to know what all this means in terms of grades. It’s relatively basic:

Put in the effort and go through the motions, and you’ll be guaranteed a B range grade. Put in the effort, focus on your learning, try hard on improving your skills, and you’re in the running for an A range grade. Do less, and you quickly risk a low grade.

Note one important principle: some things do not get graded, but they are necessary, anyway. For example, if you do not complete the syllabus review survey, you cannot do any further work in the course, or if you do not complete the midterm self-evaluation, you will not have access to assignments in the second half of the semester.

Below is how the different graded components in the course will count toward your final course grade.

The grading criteria for each component are spelled out separately.

Here is how we calculate your grade: each component receives a letter grade, which is converted to a number on the basis of UM honor points:

A    4.0

A-   3.7

B+  3.3

B    3.0

B-   2.7

C+  2.3

...and so on.

Then we take the percentage attached to that grade and multiply the number with it:

This formula produces a number, which we convert to a letter grade according to the following schema:

1. (a)The precision we use is two decimal places.
   

2. (b)The Michigan Honor Point is the cutoff for the corresponding letter grade: 3.00 is the lowest score for a B while 2.99 is a B-; 1.70 is the lowest C- while 1.69 is a D+; except that
   

3. (c)the cutoff for A is 3.90. This is because we don’t think that getting an A should require perfection.
   

All this might seem complicated, but that’s only because it’s different from what most of you are used to.

Still confused? Don’t feel bad; check out some of our examples of grade projections.

If this is clear as a day, move onto the details and grading criteria for individual components >>