Here is how the exam went. The average score was a 48. I gave a curve of 10 pts. With the curve, the average was a 58, the high was 100 and the low was 11. Most students achieved a B with scores near the average.

Remember that the letter grade given is a guide to the eye and the actual numerical grade given is what goes into the gradebook. Here was the break down of the grades, which was fairly typical. Usually there are a few more As and a few less Bs.

Here is why this exam was unfair to you.

(1) Scheduling

Last week stunk! When I was planning the exam date, I hadn’t considered the impact of the election. In 2016, the day after the election was difficult for many people. I hadn’t even considered that an exam at the end of election week would be so difficult. Then it was. Please accept my apology. If I knew then what I knew now I would have done it different.

(2) Trying to Get Online Tests Right

Let be frank, I have been making the online tests harder. I am trying to come up with problems that aren’t too easy to google. That ultimately meant that I would use even harder problems. See the discussion of this here. This exam was, I think, too hard. The actually work of the exam wasn’t so bad, except for number 7, see solutions here. However, in trying to figure it out, especially number 6, it could have taken an extreme amount of time. Time was a major issue for this exam.

(3) The Shift to All Online

Up until this point, having a multimodal class has been a benefit. However, as it has gotten colder, wetter, and sicker (i.e., COVID), we are now online 100% of the time. This meant that many students were transitioning from in-person to online classes during the material for this test. This created an unforeseen issue. Students had to suddenly adapt. As we learned in the spring of 2020, this can have a big impact on students. Interestingly not always a bad one. More than one student has expressed happiness over the switch. But for most students its non-ideal.

What I can say to you is:

• I am sorry
• Hard work in my class pays off – Make sure all your assignments are in. Better late than never.
• Keep working hard
• Unsurprisingly the students that have been regularly attending office hours have done well on average.
• Students get overwhelmed. Its a thing. Its normal. But don’t let it stop you. Keep fighting. I am 100% behind your success.