Category Archives: grading

Test 1 Results

The most popular terms were Columbian Exchange, Atlantic Slave Trade and Oluadah Equiano.  The high score in the class was 36.5 out of a possible 40, not counting extra credit — pretty good for the first test. The median score was between C+ and B-, meaning that at least half the class got a B- or above and half the class got a C+ or lower. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 36.5
A 34.5 12%
A- 32.9
B+ 29.9
B 26.75 38%
B- 23.75
C+ 20.75
C 17.6 38%
C- 14.6
D+ 11.6
D 8.5 12%
D- 5.5
F 0 0

When looking at your papers, you can ignore the little diagonal I put in the upper-left and lower-right corners of pages: that’s a note to me that there’s nothing before or after (respectively) that page which isn’t graded (just keeps me from having to flip more pages than necessary). If I underlined or circled something in one of your answers, though, it almost certainly means something you got wrong. “X” always marks an error. If I put an “approximately” sign in the margin (and I do this on essays, too) — it looks like this: ≈ — that means something which is almost right, or nearly wrong; questionable, in other words.

Comments about Next Week’s Eating History Presentations

A few notes about the Eating History chapter presentations next week:

  • With thirty chapters (and more than thirty presenters), I’ll be keeping a strict 3-minute limit, and warning you when you get to the 2-minute mark.
  • Presentations will be in order of the chapters: be ready when it’s your turn!
  • Don’t just read your summary (which is due Friday, by the way): good presentation is about talking to your audience.
  • Practice: short time means you have to get to the point, get through the interesting details, and be done efficiently. Without focus and rehearsal, you won’t know how fast to move, what to cut out, or what you can put in.
  • Don’t stress: the presentation isn’t graded (though doing it is a significant component of the project grade)
  • The goal is to share enough information that everyone gets the benefit of reading the entire book. Without, obviously, reading the entire book.

Update: I realized that I misspoke in class. The presentations are Monday and Wednesday next week.

Final Exam (Spring 2010)

Final Exam Essays Due at Time of In-Class Final

(9am: 5/12, 9am ; 2pm: 5/14, 2pm)

15% of the course grade

The take-home portion of the test will consist of two essays, equal in value, which you will choose from the following list:

  1. Compare and contrast either the American Declaration of Independence (with the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights) or the French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Your job is not to declare one better, or newer, but to explain (using evidence from both the documents and the course text) how the meaning of the term ‘rights’ changes over time.
  2. Describe China’s role in global economic and political history over the last five hundred years. This is not a history of China, but a discussion of how China has interacted with and influenced other countries and regions.
  3. Did the Columbian Exchange and European immigration into the Americas benefit Native American populations in any way, or was the process entirely disastrous? Your answer must consider both sides of the question before coming to a conclusion.
  4. What were the three most important and influential ideas to come out of the Enlightenment? Note that the effects of these ideas can be positive or negative, and that you need to focus on the long-term influence of these ideas, not the history of the Enlightenment itself.
  5. Which is the more important factor in historical change over the last half millenium: religion or technology? Your answer must consider both sides of the question before coming to a conclusion.
  6. Write a history of agriculture from 1500 to present focusing on its economic role. This is not a general history of farming, but a specific analysis of the role of agriculture in the world economy. Issues to consider include: the percentage of farmers in the population; the flow of migration from rural regions; the Columbian Exchange; differences between regions of the world; changes in technology, fertilizers and crops; general lifestyle changes.

Both Essays are due in class at beginning of in-class final

There will be no extensions or late papers accepted
except in cases of documented medical emergency.

This test covers the entire semester: textbooks, documents, and lectures.

  • This is a take-home assignment, so I am expecting two real essays, with introductions, thesis statements, paragraphs, conclusions, etc.
  • Don’t assume that “an answer” will be easily found in one section of one book. These essays require broad knowledge and analytical thinking.
  • Be concrete: evidence is always more convincing than generalization or simple logic.

You may think of it as two essays each worth about 7.5% of your course grade; that’s certainly how I calculate it.

  • The grade is based primarily on the strength of your argument as an answer to the question: thesis, evidence (completeness and handling), logic.
  • Polished prose is not required, but basic courtesies like correct spelling and writing in grammatical standard English will be expected.
  • Clarity is crucial; structure is essential to a clear and effective argument.

Citations and Plagiarism

  • failure to acknowledge the source of your ideas or information is unacceptable. Plagiarism will result in no credit for the exam. Poor paraphrasing and poor citation will be penalized.
  • A Works Cited or Bibliography page is not required unless you use sources outside of the course readings and lectures. You must cite the source of information and ideas that are outside of “general knowledge,” including information from your course texts. Format of the notes is up to you: I prefer footnotes for my research, but parenthetical citations are fine as well; any format will be fine as long as it is used consistently and it clearly identifies the source and page of your information.
  • These questions can be answered more than adequately with reference to assigned readings and lectures. You are welcome to do more research and include outside sources if necessary, but you must be sure that they are relevant and of sufficient quality to enhance your argument. Using outside sources instead of course materials will result in penalties.

Technical Details

  • Make sure that your name, section, e-mail address and the question are clearly indicated at the beginning of each essay, and that each essay begins on a fresh page. Title pages are not required.
  • There is neither a minimum nor a maximum length for these essays, but I would be surprised if you could answer any of them in less than 1000 words or needed more than 2500.
  • Double-spacing and title pages are not required, but readable type and font are.
  • Both Essays are due in class at the time of the Final Exam. There will be no extensions or late papers accepted except in cases of documented medical emergency. Emailed files will only be accepted as proof of completion; printed essays must be delivered no later than 4pm Thursday, and must be identical to the emailed files.

Midterm Results

The most popular terms were Columbian Exchange, Enlightenement and Charles Darwin. Nobody picked John Stuart Mill, which was disappointing. The high score in the class was 43.5 out of a possible 48 — pretty good for the first test, but I’ve rounded down to 43 for ease of calculation. The median score was a C+, meaning that at least half the class got a C+ or above (and half the class got a C+ or lower). Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 43
A 40 10%
A- 38.7
B+ 35.5
B 31.5 30%
B- 28
C+ 24.5
C 21 40%
C- 17.5
D+ 14
D 10.5 20%
D- 7
F 0

Over the next few days I’ll put some of the 4-out-of-4 answers up here for reference.

When looking at your papers, you can ignore the little diagonal I put in the upper-left and lower-right corners of pages: that’s a note to me that there’s nothing before or after (respectively) that page which isn’t graded (just keeps me from having to flip more pages than necessary). If I underlined or circled something in one of your answers, though, it almost certainly means something you got wrong. If I put an “approximately” sign in the margin (and I do this on essays, too) — it looks like this: ≈ — that means something which is almost right, or nearly wrong; questionable, in other words.

While I’m giving you grade charts, here’s the distribution from the first article review.

Grade Level distribution
A-level 3%
B-level 33%
C-level 27%
D-level 30%
F 7%

The median grade was a C. Given both of these sets of numbers, you should be able to tell more or less how you’re doing relative to your classmates.

Note: if you did not take the midterm, and did not hand in an article review, you may be dropped from the course. (If you don’t want to be dropped, contact me immediately) If you did only one or the other, I will not drop you, but you might want to consider whether you’re going to finish well. If you have questions about your grade, feel free to contact me. The deadline to drop with a W is Friday.

Midterm Info

The midterm will be on Friday, March 26, as scheduled.

The list of study terms covers all the chapters we’ve discussed, 15-24; basically from 1500 up to the 19th century. The vast majority of the terms are in the textbook; a few (like ‘early modern’ and ‘world systems theory’) come only from the lectures; most will have been covered in both the textbook and lectures and your answer should draw on both.

From the list of study terms, I’ll pick twenty-five; you will have to pick twelve to answer. Answers are usually short paragraphs.

The answers I’m looking for have three important components:

  • Definition: Basic information about what the person did or what the event involved or what the term means.
  • Context: What country or region, what time period does this fit into? What else is happening around this term that’s important to know? What other people or events or concepts play a role?
  • Significance: Why is this an important person or event or concept? What does this change about the world, and what comes after this that couldn’t have happened without it?

Definition alone, which is what you get if you memorize the textbook sidebar or a sentence or two from the text, gets you up to about a C. Context gets you to B-range. You need all three to make an A. (All of this assumes that you’re getting it right, of course.) You can get all that from the textbook, if you read it carefully, but it’s a lot easier if you listen to the lectures, too. Your answer on tests are not be limited to the material in a single chapter: many names and terms and processes will appear in multiple chapters.

You can find some exemplars of good work from previous semesters here and here. You can also see a comparison of good answers with the textbook sidebar definitions, if you’re thinking of memorizing those short definitions (hint: it’s not a good idea!)

I grade the individual questions on a 4-point scale: 4=A, 3=B, etc. I then total those up and, taking the highest grade in the class as 100%, convert them back to a letter grade with pluses and minuses. I record that grade (on a hundred point scale, so F is still worth more than zero) as your grade on the test.

I’m clearly going to need my catch-up day on Friday for finishing up the material on China and Japan, but we will talk about the test a little bit, and we have a review day on Monday the 22nd.

Final Exam Distribution: Columbus v. Natives ; Locke v. Hobbes

I haven’t graded the finals yet, obviously, but I did sort them out to see which questions were most popular (and make sure that I got a final from everyone). Wow.

Compare and contrast the liberation of Latin America in the early 19th century and the decolonization of Africa in the late 20th century. 5
Describe the effects of the world slave trade on sub-Saharan Africa. (Don’t spend time talking about slavery in the Americas or elsewhere; focus on Africa). 10
Describe the world economy around 1700. Include trade, flows of silver and gold, the role of agriculture, major exporters and the state of technology. How are things changing? 7
Did the Columbian Exchange benefit Native American populations in any way, or was it entirely disastrous? 38
How did the Industrial Revolution affect Asia? How do Asian nations respond to the economic and military power of the West after industrialization? 10
Locke and Hobbes had very different ideas about the role of government and the rights of the individual. Describe their ideas, especially their differences. How have those ideas influenced political history over the last 300 years, and which of these thinkers is closest to our present-day ideas about rights and government? (globally, not just the United States) 26

Test #3 Results

The top terms were:

  1. Adolf Hitler
  2. Cuban Missile Crisis
  3. Pearl Harbor
  4. Great Depression
  5. One Child Policy
  6. League of Nations

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit) again, which I used as the 100% mark. The median score was B. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 42
A 39.8 20%
A- 37.8
B+ 34.8
B 30.3 55%
B- 27.3
C+ 24.3
C 19.8 25%
C- 16.8
D+ 13.8
D 9.3 0%
D- 6.3
F 0

If you compare it to the last quiz, you can see some movement from D to C and movement from C to B: definite shift up. If you want your test grades before you hand in your final, email me. Otherwise, I’ll have the tests ready to hand back when you hand in the final essays. Now, on to grade the book reviews!

End of Semester Survey

The extra credit survey on your quizzes gave me some interesting feedback. The clearest answer to the “what should we have spent less time on” question was “Asia,” with military/warfare history also getting a few more dings than the rest of the topics. The question of what I should have spent more time on is more complicated: Africa, Europe/US, Latin America, Middle East, politics/warfare and religion/philosophy all got large numbers of votes (about a quarter of the class), with family/social and literature/culture coming in the second tier. Definitely something to think about for next semester, though it would be easier if the number of “more” answers wasn’t so much greater than the number of “less” answers; I don’t know where I’m going to find the time! I’m not likely to pull back the Asia material much, but I do think I can do a better job of making it clear how it’s integrated with the rest of the textbook material, and there are definitely areas that I could do a bit more in. Thanks!

You got a half point for each question, and a point for the explanation: two points possible. I was not grading on whether I agree with you or not, obviously.

Test #2 Results

The top terms were:

  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. Industrial Revolution
  3. Napoleon Bonaparte
  4. Isaac Newton
  5. Declaration of Independence
  6. Charles Darwin

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit) again, which I used as the 100% mark (which again raised everyone’s grades a lot). The median score was between B and B-. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 42
A 39.8 20%
A- 37.8
B+ 34.8
B 30.3 40%
B- 27.3
C+ 24.3
C 19.8 30%
C- 16.8
D+ 13.8
D 9.3 10%
D- 6.3
F 0

If you compare it to the last quiz, you can see some movement from B to A and some movement from D to C. But not much.

Test #1 Results

The most popular term, by far, was “Columbian Exchange” followed by “Martin Luther,” “Abolition” and “The Bill of Rights.”

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit), which I used as the 100% mark (which raised everyone’s grades a lot). The median score was a B or B-. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Grade minimum points distribution
A+ 42
A 39.8 15%
A- 37.8
B+ 34.8
B 30.3 45%
B- 27.3
C+ 24.3
C 19.8 20%
C- 16.8
D+ 13.8
D 9.3 20%
D- 6.3
F 0

This looks pretty good, but remember two things. The extra credits were a very helpful: most people got both right, and each grade scale was only three points or a bit more. The top score is very likely to go up in later tests, which means that everyone has to improve just to stay even.

Finally, I was, as I noted, very disappointed by the number of answers which parroted back the textbook’s sidebar definitions. Here are a few examples of how those definitions compare to answers which actually got good scores (3.5 or 4 out of 4) below the fold. My favorite example is the last one: notice how the textbook sidebar definition almost entirely fails to mention what makes Cornwallis important in this chapter, but the student definition ignores all the irrelevant stuff and goes right to significance? Note that the student definitions aren’t perfect but they very clearly cover the context, often mention and define related terms, and are especially good on significance, why the term/person/etc. mattered:

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