I received my grades back from LSU on my first round of submitted assignments and so far I've received an “A+”. Very cool indeed. Well that's the good news. The bad news is that all of my 16 assignments combined will not even make up 1/4 of my total score. That's right, it's those proctored exams that will weigh so heavily upon my success or failure. As of right now I am going to have to use the schools resources to locate a testing center in my area.
So far this is what I've learned. First there will be 3 exams for this course. The first exam spans half of the textbook and counts as 100 points and the second test covers the other half of the book and counts as 100 points. The final exam is comprehensive and is also worth 100 points. Here's the kicker, all 16 assignments will only be worth 80 points. That's 80 out of 380 total points to receive a grade. Bummer huh?
The exams are supposed to be 40 multiple choice and true/false questions worth 2 points each or 80 percent of the total score altogether. The essay or problem question is worth 20 points alone and there will be 1 on the test. All in all I will have 3 hours to complete the entire exam.
The comprehensive exam must be a minimum score of 60 percent regardless of the rest of your scores. Failure on that test is an “F” for the course. Oh, and all exams are closed book.
Lastly all exams are final, as in no retakes regardless of the score. If you fail badly enough that you cannot pull out a cumulative 60 percent or higher overall, then you pretty much are done with the course period. At that point you have to take an “F” for the course and re-enroll all over (if they let you).
So there it is. A couple more assignment submissions and I begin studying in full gear for my first exam. I'm kind of nervous as to what that essay question is going to be like. 20 percent of the overall exam grade is pretty steep for a word question, would you agree?
As for the assignments, here's what I do. First I go through the chapter of course. Then I pull out the handy little workbook and work through each question and check my answers using the textbook via studying the text. The lesson answers are NOT in the book. It's like an open book exam with all the time in the world you need. Although I will say that the lessons tend to be paraphrased or worded differently often than how things in the book will be, which means no shortcuts, you'll have to read it.
Once I have all of my answers down on a sheet of notebook paper, I begin to transpose them to a word document with all of the formatting guidelines followed to the letter. And there are a few so pay attention to those or you will not get a grade on your lessons. Once saved in a .doc file I then log onto the LSU Web site and select my assignment which happily produces a page with an electronic duplicate of your study guide just in case you ever lose it. At the bottom is a link to submit the assignment which brings up an attachment tab which when you select acts much like any email or Blackboard attachment you've ever used. Note that the electronic assignment is typed answers only, at least for this class. They do not want the entire questionnaire submitted with the assignment, just the answers, which is handy because I'd really hate to retype all of that stuff.
Once ready to check your grade you go to a different student area to do so. You will not check your grade in the same place that you submitted your assignment. An annoyance I know, but it's a small one and LSU is so inexpensive who's going to nit pick right?
So there you have it in a nutshell. So far so good, I'll keep you guys up to date on my upcoming test.