This will presumably be my last message to the class.

The full description of the renormalization procedure for recitation quiz grades has now been posted. You can find it linked to the "Grades" page, under "For more information about how the grades were computed, click here." Remember that the purpose of the renormalization is to compensate, as accurately as I can, for the fact that recitation instructors have different styles, in terms of the difficulty of their quizzes and the manner in which they are graded.

Happy holidays, and best wishes for next term and the rest of your stay at MIT.

[Posted Friday, 12/27/02.]

Apparently WebSIS already lists your final grades in 8.01, so they beat me. The 8.01 website grades are now posted, however, and these listings include much more information.

The average grade on the Final Exam was 66.6%, with a standard deviation of 13.5%. For the final course average grades, the average was 72.4%, with a standard deviation of 10.3%. The cut-offs for letter grades were as follows:

There were a few students with grades a point or two below these borderlines who were pushed upwards by Prof. Farhi, after discussions with the recitation instructors, as was described in the 8.01 grading policy statement.

If you have questions about your raw recitation quiz grade, your homework grade, or any of the exam scores, including the final exam, please contact your recitation instructor. If you have any questions about the renormalization of your recitation quiz grade or the averaging of the grades, please contact me at guth@ctp.mit.edu. If you have trouble finding your recitation instructor, you can feel free to contact me about anything.

Grade corrections can be handled in January during IAP, so you should not feel any pressure to interrupt your vacation to worry about errors in the 8.01 grading. However, if you have questions, feel free to contact us immediately if you wish. I will respond to email during the vacation, and I am sure that many of the other course staff members would, too.

Further information about the procedure for renormalizing the recitation quiz grades will be posted shortly.

For those of you who did not pass (about 10% of the class), I wish I could be sending you happier holiday news. However, please keep in mind that the pass/no record system prevents this from counting against you in the long run. Depending on their background, some students just take more than one exposure to this material before it really makes sense. Try not to let this make you feel discouraged, and be prepared to roll up your sleeves and jump into this material when you take the course again. I am sure that you will feel much more confident about the material after another go-through.

Have a happy holiday!

[Posted Wednesday, 12/25/02.]