Midterm, individual and group

There will be one exam, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct 29-30. You will take the test on Tuesday as you normally would. On Wednesday, you have the option of re-taking the test in a small group, where group members can discuss answers among yourselves before turning in one exam for the group (still closed book, though, but you can of course study as you like Tuesday night for Wednesday’s re-test). The individual portion of the exam (Tuesday’s test) will be worth 75% of your total grade for the test, and the group portion 25%. If you prefer, you can take the test again on Wednesday by yourself, or choose not take it again and settle for whatever grade you end up with from the individual exam (without knowing your grade, though). If your group on the second day scores lower than you as an individual did the previous day, the score will not count against you (i.e., I’ll give you 100% of the points based on your Tuesday, individual score). The point of this exercise is to, hopefully, turn the test into a learning exercise as well as an evaluation tool. Past experience has shown that the group re-test raises the class average from a half to a whole letter grade. Exam content will not include work from the small group assignments.

Midterm exam is worth 100 points.