Late assignments will not be accepted; with a valid excuse, your assignment grade can be reweighted. For learning purposes, you are advised to do the assignment anyway and check the answer key. Questions about the assignment are welcome whether you turned it in or not.

There is no alternative midterm in most cases. With a valid excuse, your midterm grade can be reweighted.

Excuses are handled through the associate Dean’s office, with the exception of McMaster related trips (see below).

Sports and academic trips

You can be excused from a midterm for trips related to sporting events or academic research if a full-time McMaster staff (or faculty) member involved with the trip or project sends me an email. If you would like to take the midterm, the staff member must agree in writing to supervise you, to administer the midterm as close to the scheduled time as practical, and to take reasonable precautions against your communicating with others about the content. We don’t do delays, because we like to release the test content as quickly as practical.

Reweighting

Your test and assignment grades will be calculated separately. This means the weight for a missed midterm will be re-allocated to the two remaining tests (in proportion to their original weights), and the weight for a missed assignment will be re-allocated to the remaining assignments. For example, if you miss one midterm with a valid excuse/MSAF form, since the original weights of the midterms and exam are 25% (each midterm) and 40% (final), the weights for the remaining midterm and the final are (0.9×0.25/0.65)=35% and (0.9×0.4/0.65)=55% respectively.