Live-blogging Grading: Halfway There

Finished with the Multiple Choice. The overall results are a surprisingly natural-looking distribution. I say “surprising,” because it rarely seems to be quite this neat. The top score was 46 2/3rds out of 50. (extra credit, I’ll tack on at the very end)

Range % of class
45-50 2%
40-45 10%
35-40 18%
30-35 30%
25-30 20%
20-25 15%
15-20 5%
0-15 0%

Now, on to the essays!

Live-blogging Grading: Page 4, “All Of The Above Strikes Back”

Page 3 is a lot like page 4: a bunch of “all of the above” questions, only one of which actually had that as the correct response. Two that didn’t, and which apparently fooled a lot of people, were

  1. The Great Learning of Confucius says that political harmony requires
    1. a balance between rewards and punishments, and clear job descriptions
    2. active citizens participating in decision-making and military action
    3. well-ordered families and educated people with sincere hearts
    4. all of the above
  1. The Qin Dynasty collapsed quickly, so it wasn’t able to
    1. build lots of roads and walls
    2. standardize language, weights, measures and money
    3. unify large territories
    4. write its own history
    5. all of the above

Varnas and the Mandate of Heaven were apparently substantial challenges, as well.

That’s all for tonight. I’m sure I’ll get through the remaining multiple choice questions tomorrow, though adding things up, etc., takes more time than you might think. Not sure about the essays, though: it’s looking like Wednesday for test return.

Live-blogging Grading: Page 3, “Revenge of All Of The Above”

This page had a lot of  “all of the above” answers – 4 out of 14 questions – but only one of them was correct, and all four turned out to be very tricky. The two trickiest were, apparently,

  1. Athens was known for
    1. democracy, philosophy, and trade
    2. military focus, agriculture and chariots
    3. equality, publishing and technological development
    4. all of the above
  1. Leader who conquered the territory sometimes known as Persia
    1. Alexander the Great
    2. Cyrus the Great
    3. General Seleucus
    4. all of the above

There were also problems with the Shang Dynasty, Sophocles and Aristophanes, and Daoism….

Live-blogging Grading: Page 2

There were two questions that gave a lot of people trouble (and it’s a good thing I give partial credit when you get an “all of the above” wrong).

  1. Though the Han dynasty copied a lot of what the Qin dynasty started, one of their important developments was
    1. an examination system to ensure that literate Confucian scholars staffed the imperial bureaucracy
    2. a system of defensive walls to separate sedentary and pastoral borderlands
    3. increasingly democratic systems of consultation and coordination
    4. all of the above
  1. The Aryan people move into and dominate
    1. Persia
    2. India
    3. Germania
    4. China

Live-blogging Grading Test 1

Thought you might like a progress report: Finished page 1!

The hardest question on the page, apparently, was

  1. The Egyptian Pharaohs were
    1. kings who claimed to be the children and descendants of gods
    2. priest-kings who claimed to speak for the gods
    3. kings who worshipped ancestors who could intervene with the gods
    4. kings elected by aristocratic peers to lead religious rituals

There was also some Chinese philosophy guessing and Varna-Veda confusion.

Test 5 Results

On the test, as usual, I gave plus and minus grades (A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc) which translate into a 100 point scale in my gradebook (100, 96, 92, 88, 85, 82, etc., down to 55 for F). The high score in the class was 57 out of a possible 59 (I ditched one question as too poorly worded to have a right answer), not counting extra credit: I used 55 as the top again, for simplicity, and the same slightly extended scale for grades. The median score was B+, meaning that about as many people got above a B+ or above as a B or below; the average score was B. The extra credit was worth up to 5 points: Half of the people who attempted extra credit went up one grade level, and most of the rest were not close enough to the next grade to get a benefit. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 55
A 51 40%
A- 47.5
B+ 45
B 42.5 25%
B- 40
C+ 37.5
C 35 20%
C- 32.5
D+ 30
D 27.5 10%
D- 25
F Below 25 5%

In related news, I’m going to be making a slight adjustment to the test and document assignment grades, in order to de-emphasize your lowest grade on each assignment.

If you want to pick up your test before the Final, I’ll be in my office Monday 10-12:30 and about 2-4. Tuesday I’ll be in 1-3.

Good luck on the Final!

Test 4 Grades

On the test, as usual, I gave plus and minus grades (A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc) which translate into a 100 point scale in my gradebook (100, 96, 92, 88, 85, 82, etc., down to 58, 55, 50 for F-level). The high score in the class was 56 out of a possible 58, not counting extra credit: I used 55 as the top, for simplicity, and a slightly extended scale for grades. The median score was B-, meaning that about as many people got above a B- or above as a B- or below; the average score was right between B- and C+. The extra credit was worth up to 5 points: Being Africa, fewer people attempted the extra credit, and the scores were, on the whole, not as helpful. Next time, I guess. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 55
A 51 20%
A- 47.5
B+ 45
B 42.5 30%
B- 40
C+ 37.5
C 35 20%
C- 32.5
D+ 30
D 27.5 25%
D- 25
F Below 25 5%

Not only did the average and median scores go up on this test, but most of you either equalled or exceeded your average score, which means that your overall grade either held steady or went up, in all but a few cases. Good work!

Unrelated Note: I’m already running a little behind on lectures for this section. I’ll be trying to catch up, but just in case, I’ve pushed the last document assignment due date back to Friday the 29th. This ensures that we’ve covered the relevant history before you have to turn it in.

Doc Assignment 4 Grades

On the Meiji Constitution assignment, I gave grades and plus grades (A+, A, B+, B, etc.) Here’s how the grade scale worked out, approximately:

Grade Level distribution
A 10%
B 15%
C 30%
D 20%
F 25%
Did not Attempt 50%

I know that adds up to 150%. The DNA ratio is for the whole class. The grade distributions include only students who turned in the assignment. DNA is a grade of zero.

Test 3 and Doc Assignment 3 Grades

On the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen assignment, I gave grades and plus grades (A+, A, B+, B, etc.) Here’s how the grade scale worked out, approximately:

Grade Level distribution
A 5%
B 20%
C 50%
D 20%
F 5%

On the test, I gave plus and minus grades (A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc) which translate into a 100 point scale in my gradebook (100, 96, 92, 88, 85, 82, etc., down to 58, 55, 50 for F-level). The high score in the class was 49 out of a possible 49, not counting extra credit, and I used a slightly extended scale for grades (if you’re not sure whether that helped you, just double your raw score to get your percentage score before the adjustment). The median score was C/C+, meaning that about as many people got above a C+ or above as a C or below; the average score was a solid C as well. The extra credit was worth up to 5 points: about a quarter of the people who attempted extra credit got no benefit; over half went up one grade level (B to B+, etc.), about a sixth went up two grade levels (B- to B+, etc.). Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 49
A 45 15%
A- 43
B+ 41
B 39 25%
B- 37
C+ 35
C 33 25%
C- 31
D+ 29
D 27 25%
D- 25
F+ 23
F Below 23 10%

On a related note, I realized that my grading scale for the previous tests was based more on my experience with essay and short-answer tests than multiple choice tests. I’ve adjusted the grades on previous tests to compensate: B-level grades added a point; C-level grades 2 points; D-level grades 3 points; F-level grades 4 points. So your average may be a little higher than you think.

Some thoughts on the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

In no particular order

  • Context/Author: most people mentioned either the Declaration of Independence (and sometimes the English Bill of Rights) or the Enlightenment (Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu), but almost nobody mentioned both. Similarly, many of you mentioned Lafayette’s American sojourn but ignored the fact that he was an educated Frenchman to begin with, well-versed in philosophe writings.
  • Responses: The United States did, generally, welcome the Declaration, but it also reacted very badly to the radical turn of the Revolution, eventually passing the Alien and Sedition acts to criminalize revolutionary positions and restrict French immigration. The Haiti slave revolts were very worrying to the plantation states as well. But buying the Louisiana Territory when Napoleon needed cash to try to put down the Haitian revolt was a good deal.
  • Historical Use: Similarly, very few people noted that the Declaration was only operative for a few years, though the principles it establishes do influence later French governments. The effect of the Declaration was both minimal in the short term and extraordinary in the long term. History’s a funny thing, sometimes.
  • I’m still writing “weak paraphrase” on too many papers. Summarizing or condensing primary sources is a challenge sometimes: the temptation to quote extensively is strong. If you’re not using exact quotes with quotation marks, though, what you write needs to be your words, not a slightly modified version of the words you read.

Don’t forget: the document assignment for Japan’s Meiji Constitution is due Monday the 28th.

Hope you’re having a fun and productive break!