CIT 336 – Backend Development is a great class. You’ll learn a lot. The grading is confusing. It’s the only class I’ve taken that’s graded based on achieving “objectives” rather than a percentage of points. I heard about this through the semester and I read it in the syllabus, but I didn’t realize that I didn’t understand what that meant until it got down to the final.
I’ll explain it for you and how to figure out where you stand in the course so you don’t suffer the same confusion and dismay that I did.
There are ~575 “points” you can earn in the class, but there are really only 6 points. If you miss even one of those points you get a B. The only way to get an A is to get all 6 points. The only way to get all 6 points is if all 6 “objectives” are above 80%.
You can have well above 80% in every objective, but miss some points on the final in a single objective and that will take you down an entire letter grade. For example, Objective 5 has 73 points possible. If you miss 15 points on the final in that objective you will get a B in the class, even if you have perfect scores every where else. This semester there are ~575 points possible. If you had 560 points because you missed those 15 points on Objective 5. You’d get a B in the class.
That may not seem fair, but it’s the way it is. It’s not a bad way to grade – it just needs to be more clear throughout the semester – especially going into the final.
It is tricky to figure out if you’re above 80%. I haven’t had any other classes graded like this and the “Grades” page is unclear about where you stand. For example. This is what my Objective 1 area looks like:
Nowhere does it show what score is needed to maintain above 80%. Not that I’m just trying to get above an 80%. But it helps you understand the weight of all the different pieces of the objective.
How to figure it out
Add up the possible points (the numbers in the green box).
Multiple times .80 (that’s 80%). That will give you the total points you need to achieve to earn the single point for that objective.
So you can see that Objective 2 has 104 points possible. Multiple that times .8 = 83. You need to make sure to get at least 83 points total to pass the objective.
sum of possible points x .8 = points needed to pass objective
Do that calculation for each objective and you will know where you stand.
