I am almost finished marking your tests. I will be in Bahen 2139 from about 1.30 (earlier if I can) until 3.00 to hand them back; or you can get them from me right after class. Remarking will be handled as follows: you are free to look at the test in my presence, but if you want to submit it for a remark you need to give it back to me (and then, at some point, talk to me about why you think you deserve a remark). If you take the exam paper away with you, you cannot submit it for a remark later.

Some general comments about the test. While I haven't finished marking all the papers, nor done any statistical analysis, my rough feeling is that most of the marks are below 60%, and the average was probably between 50% and 60% (there were several people who got over 90%; doing practice problems seems to help after all). I also have a pretty good feeling that many of you ran out of time, which probably means that the test was too long. Before anyone tries to kill me or decides to peremptorily drop the course, may I offer some reassurances:

-- I do not intend to fail half the class (that would be silly).

-- I will take care that the remaining quizzes and the final are doable within the time allotted. I know I have said this before. This time I promise. And I have a better idea of how to make sure it happens, too.

-- I am more interested in seeing how much all of you know by the time the course is over than what you knew at any point during the course. So I am willing to give those of you who feel you know more than your term test result indicates an opportunity to demonstrate that. I am leaning towards some form of extra assessment (think additional long quiz, or something like that, but individualised), though I have other possibilities in mind too. (The main point is that it shouldn't be something that takes a lot more of your time, since I know all of you are busy and the length of the test was my fault, not yours.) If anyone is interested in this, please send me an e-mail and then we can talk at some point. (I would like to know how many people are interested in this before I decide for certain what form the additional assessment would take.)

-- -- That is on the assumption that I am free to introduce extra-credit assessments not mentioned in the syllabus (I am pertty sure this is the case).

-- There are a nontrivial number of papers which seem to me to indicate lack of comprehension of some basic parts of the course. I know that all of us are busy and have different goals, and learning everything in this course is not necessarily high on everyone's list of priorities. That is fine. On the other hand, if you are having trouble grasping basic parts of the course, I would encourage you to come talk to me (or Dmitri) at some point to get things straightened out as much as possible.

There was probably something else I forgot but that will have to do for the moment. (In case anyone is wondering I haven't posted the marks to Quercus yet. I will do that later on today.)

If anyone has questions please let me know. Otherwise I will see you in a couple hours, or in class.

Nathan