Exam times can be found on the course calendar. Exam locations will be given out several days before the exam via a Canvas announcement.

During exams collaboration is not allowed. The only things allowed on your desk are the exam and approved resources, which include:

• One 8.5 x 11 inch doubled sided sheet of notes
• non-communicating graphing scientific calculator
• 1 page of scratch paper
• writing utensils (pen or pencil)

Midterm Exams  |  The midterms will be on Wednesday nights at 7 pm. See the calendar for exact dates. Expect each exam to be highly dependent on the material since the previous exam but often you may have to draw on knowledge from previous topics. The midterm exams are closed book. Please bring your student ID card, writing utensil and an approved calculator. Midterm 1 and 2 will each constitute 15% of your final grade.

Final Exam  |  The final will be comprehensive, i.e. it will cover the entire course. The final exam is closed book. Please bring your student ID card, writing utensil and an approved calculator. The final exam will constitute 35% of your final grade.

The TAs will grade the exams. Partial credit will be given on most worked out problems. Clearly organizing your solutions is paramount to partial credit. Most solutions should include at least the following:

• physical representation: diagram or figure
• list of known and unknown variables that pertain to the problem
• list of equations that pertain to the problem
• organized, step-by-step, application of each equation with the appropriate variables
• any assumptions or symmetries that are exploited must clearly be stated
• sensemaking analysis
• clearly boxed answer with at least 3 significant figures

Exam Grading Appeals  | If you spot a clear error in the grading of your exam, or if you believe you displayed more understanding than you were given credit for: please submit a regrade request via Gradescope. Your request will not be processed unless you include a clearly written explanation of which problems you would like reviewed and why you believe more credit should be awarded. This explanation should include what you did, where your solution went wrong (if applicable), and why your answer deserves more credit than you received. It is NOT sufficient simply to say “I think I deserved more points for this.” You have to say why. The best approach for this is to use the photocopy of your exam and basically “re-score” the problem in question—as if you were the grader—showing how your version of the scoring is more aligned with the posted solution and rubric. You must file your regrade request within 10 days of receiving your graded exam. Regrade requests will not be reviewed until after this 10 day period has elapsed, so you may not know your new grade for several weeks after the exam has been returned. Regrade requests received after this 10 day period has elapsed will not be reviewed.

Don't panic after receiving your exam grade. Remember the grading scale which can be found on the grades page on Syllabus. Additionally it often takes time to get traction in physics. It is not uncommon for a student to get a 45% on their first midterm, a 55% on the second, and 65% on the final exam. They do well on the rest of their work and receive a solid B in the course. Do not let one exam score deter you. Please seek out support from your instructor, a TA, or an LA if you are feeling discouraged. We can and do help! Also, you are not defined by your performance in physics and one bad exam or course grade will not prevent you from achieving your professional dreams.

Research shows that one of the most important parts of the learning process is the meta-cognitive step. This is where you look back at what you've learned and synthesize that information. This can be a reflective exercise. In physics one way it manifests is reviewing your homework and exams. After your exams are graded pull up both the Rubric and points given on Gradescope, as well as the solutions from BoxSand. Go through each problem and identify what you did correctly and what you could have done better. Even go back and solve the parts you missed. This is especially important in physics because the content builds off each other. At the end of the PH203 you will take an exam that could have content from the entire sequence. The focus will be on the 203 content but we will have built ideas in 201 that show up throughout the year. The plot below shows the difference in our OSU class from a previous year and the average number of downloaded solutions per grade. You should take notice of the jump between C and B students. B students are participating in the metacognitive step at a much greater rate than C students.