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Astronomy 16: Assessment

These numbers are for last year!

Your final grade will be based on the following breakdown:
  • Laboratory Reports (25%)
    • Lab 1 grades (out of 20): mean 17.5, standard deviation 1.5
    • Lab 2 grades (out of 20): mean 17.7, standard deviation 1.9
    • TOTAL (out of 25%): mean 21.9%, standard deviation 2.0%
  • Problem Sets (25%)
    • Problem Set 1 grades (out of 25): mean 22.6, standard deviation 1.3
    • Problem Set 2 grades (out of 30): mean 27.8, standard deviation 1.8
    • TOTAL (out of 25%): mean 22.9%, standard deviation 1.3%
  • Mid-terms (15%)
    • Midterm 1 grades (out of 30): mean 21.4, standard deviation 4.3
    • Midterm 2 grades (out of 30): mean 24.0, standard deviation 3.6
    • TOTAL (out of 15%): mean 11.4%, standard deviation 1.8%
  • Class/Lab Participation (10%)
  • Final Exam (25%)
    • Exam grade (out of 100): mean 82.9, standard deviation 17.9

Based on your performance in these areas, you will be awarded a final grade using the standard FAS Grading System. Note that no grading curves are used in this course - you will be graded based on your absolute merit.

Policy on Research and Collaboration

We strongly encourage you to make use of the astronomical literature and the internet in your analyses and reports. However, it is crucial that you properly cite or acknowledge any material or ideas which are not your own work. Failure to do so is not only bad scientific practice, but is also plagiarism. If you are unsure how to properly acknowledge someone else's ideas, check out "Writing With Sources: A Guide for Harvard Students". (Note that this article was written before the WWW existed. You should cite WWW pages by listing the URL, title of the page and date you accessed it.)

We also encourage you to discuss your work with your fellow students, particularly when obtaining and interpreting data taken during the laboratory sessions. However, your final lab report should largely be your own work. Any contributions from other students in the form of data, discussions or suggestions should be clearly acknowledged in your report.

Please feel free to check with your lecturer or TF for clarification on any issues which you are unsure about. Note that plagiarism is considered a very serious offense at Harvard.

Policy on Late Submissions

Lab reports and problem sets are due on the date specified in the course calendar, and should be handed in to your Teaching Fellow by 11.30am on that day. You do NOT need specific permission from the lecturer or the TF to hand things in late (although it is very helpful to let us know that this is going to be the case).

If you feel that unexpected personal circumstances have made it impossible for you to meet the deadline, please drop your lecturer a brief email asking for an extension. In most reasonable cases, we will be happy to extend the deadline for you without penalty.

In all other cases, we will penalize late submissions by subtracting 10% of your grade per day past the deadline (and 5% for each half day). For example, if something is due on Thursday morning and you hand it in the next Monday afternoon, we'll compute your final grade and then subtract 45%.) It is obviously still better to hand something in a few days late than not at all.

Please don't ask for the penalty to be waived if the only reason for a late submission is that you have been really busy with other courses or other commitments - since all deadlines will be listed well in advance on the course calendar, we encourage you to plan ahead if you know you have a busy period coming up.

Last updated: 24-May-2006
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