AST 301 - Introduction to Astronomy

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AST 301

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Two Sections

Note that I am teaching two sections of AST 301 back-to-back. This presents you with some opportunities and with one constraint. The opportunity is to listen to a lecture twice if you have trouble understanding it. If you have the time and the need, I do not mind if you come to both lectures on any given class day, as long as we don't run out of seats. If seating gets tight, please give priority to the people who are registered in a given section. The constraint is this: During exams, I will have to ask those of you who are in the earlier section (Unique number 45905) to stay in the room until the end of the test, even if you are finished. Please bring something to read and try not to disturb the people who are still working on the test. The reason is that I will combine the grade lists for both sections before "curving" the final marks. I want to be fair and give everybody the same exams.

Exams and Grades

There will be 5 in-class exams (see the syllabus). Four of these will follow and cover the 4 major sections of the course. The fifth will in essence be a makeup exam following Section 2. Your lowest exam score will be dropped and the average of your other exam scores will make up 80 % of your final grade. The remaining 20 % will be the average grade on the 4 homework assignments. There will be no final exam. There is no penalty for missing any one exam as long as you take at least 4 of the 5 exams. For this reason, there will be no makeup exams.

Numerical grades will be converted to letter grades approximately as follows:

A = 85 % or more

B = 84 - 75 %

C = 74 -60 %

D = 59 - 45 %

F = less than 45 %

I may make small adjustments to the above, but I will not make the scale more difficult. If you are taking this course on a pass/fail basis, University rules say that a passing grade is equivalent to a D or higher.

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14 January 2003
Astronomy Program · The University of Texas at Austin · Austin, Texas 78712
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