Basic Grade Scale

Grade Spread
for my sections

Out of 72

A+ = 3

A = 8

A- = 8

B+ = 9

B = 8

B- = 5

C+ = 6

C = 9

C- = 5

D+ = 3

D = 1

D- = 5

F = 2

Average = B-

Point Breakdown

+ Part 1 +

Group = 1

Country = 1/2

Item = 1

Materials = 1/2

This was weighted to encourage the information section, while still emphasizing the most important ID items.

This was balanced to give more weight to the ID, since many of you had not done slide comparisons before. This weighting may change on the Final.

I graded the essay using approximations of the overall grade scale.

Out of 35 points

B = 30

C = 27

etc.

This was to give you a better sense of how I rated your essay overall, rather than breaking it down into tit-for-tat point deductions that are not very accurate or useful when the overall piece is what should be addressed.

Overall, an essay that was very general, with no clear references to the readings (ie the information could have easily have come simply from lecture of section) received a C-. I believe that was fair, because the directions were explicit in requiring detail and clear references.