Averaging Grades
 

My fiancee is a T.A. in a music class and she has to figure out grades for the kids in the class. There are five things the kids are graded on and they all are weighted differently:

Tests: 45%
Quizzes: 20%
Participation/Attendance: 15%
Online Assignments: 10%
Concert Reports: 10%

Anyone know how to explain how to figure out how to give the grades?

Thanks.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

just give them all As imo..

Re: Averaging Grades
 

omg, that's what i said, except Fs

Re: Averaging Grades
 

That's funny...my ex-fiancee is a music teacher and we also had the EXACT same conversation.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

so, what did you come up with?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Take the weights and multiply them by total grades for each section, then just add them up.

Example:

Tests: 90 * .45 = 40.5
Quizzes: 100 * .20 = 20
Participation: 100 * .15 = 15
Online Assignments: 90 * .10 = 9
Concert Reports: 85 * .10 = 8.5

Total = 93%

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Is she a 6th grader T.A.ing the 4th grade chorus?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Take the weights and multiply them by total grades for each section, then just add them up.

Example:

Tests: 90 * .45 = 40.5
Quizzes: 100 * .20 = 20
Participation: 100 * .15 = 15
Online Assignments: 90 * .10 = 9
Concert Reports: 85 * .10 = 8.5

Total = 93%

[/ QUOTE ]

i have to way to know if this is right, but i'm probably just going to go with it, thank you very, very much.


[ QUOTE ]
Is she a 6th grader T.A.ing the 4th grade chorus?

[/ QUOTE ]

your mother

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Take the weights and multiply them by total grades for each section, then just add them up.

Example:

Tests: 90 * .45 = 40.5
Quizzes: 100 * .20 = 20
Participation: 100 * .15 = 15
Online Assignments: 90 * .10 = 9
Concert Reports: 85 * .10 = 8.5

Total = 93%

[/ QUOTE ]

i have to way to know if this is right, but i'm probably just going to go with it, thank you very, very much.


[ QUOTE ]
Is she a 6th grader T.A.ing the 4th grade chorus?

[/ QUOTE ]

your mother

[/ QUOTE ]

Really, NO WAY to know?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Or you could do this:

total = (t * .45) + (q * .2) + (p * .15) + (o * .1) + (c * .1)

Cleaner and gives you what IFX did. (Assuming you already have the scores for the above criteria already. If not, you're pretty much SOL.)

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
My fiancee is a T.A. in a music class and she has to figure out grades for the kids in the class. There are five things the kids are graded on and they all are weighted differently:

Tests: 45%
Quizzes: 20%
Participation/Attendance: 15%
Online Assignments: 10%
Concert Reports: 10%

Anyone know how to explain how to figure out how to give the grades?

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Take the grade vector and the weight vector in five dimensional space and multiply their lengths and the cosine of the angle between them.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

For real? Education is so dirtpoor today if even the teacher can't figure this out.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
i have to way to know if this is right

[/ QUOTE ]

It's definitely right, and I'm sure you could understand a proof if you took the time to bother with it.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
For real? Education is so dirtpoor today if even the teacher can't figure this out.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's better than it's ever been, sadly. Probably OP and his fiancee once solved problems like this using the "plug it in" approach and even got okay grades in high school math.

I've met many people who've passed calculus classes and are yet unable to grasp basic concepts. I mean, look at Monty Hall.

Oh, my mother and a few of her coworkers once spent an hour trying to explain a concept to another coworker. The other coworker was terrified of air travel after 9/11, and she wanted to find a way of bringing a bomb with her on a certain flight. Apparently she heard that the likelihood of two bombs independently being present on the same plane was extremely small, and so she thought that if she brought one bomb onboard, it would reduce the likelihood of another bomb being present. The attempts to explain her error failed, but she did give up on making a bomb.

Edit - coworker had a master's degree, btw. I think she made six figures.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For real? Education is so dirtpoor today if even the teacher can't figure this out.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's better than it's ever been, sadly.

[/ QUOTE ]


What makes you think that?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

My knowledge of the quality of education in the past, the Flynn effect, my memories of my own schooling, the increasing ability of students to tackle harder subject matter. Then again, I'm only talking about the US and about the general trend (whether we're better than we were 10 years ago I don't know, but we're better than we were 100 years ago).

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My fiancee is a T.A. in a music class and she has to figure out grades for the kids in the class. There are five things the kids are graded on and they all are weighted differently:

Tests: 45%
Quizzes: 20%
Participation/Attendance: 15%
Online Assignments: 10%
Concert Reports: 10%

Anyone know how to explain how to figure out how to give the grades?

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Take the grade vector and the weight vector in five dimensional space and multiply their lengths and the cosine of the angle between them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Before this, make sure you write the grade vector and weight vector with respect to the same basis, imo.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

If she asked her students I bet at least a few of them would know, assuming they are over the age of 8.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

thanks for the help guys.

i came in here for help because i'm not good at doing these things without sitting down to figure them out and i was on my way out the door last night.

Nielso,

you're an idiot. if you're basing the state of american education on whether my girlfriend wasn't sure about how to do this, you're an even bigger idiot. she's not a math person. that's why she's not going to be a math teacher. she's a terrific piano player. that's why she's going to teach music. haven't you ever taken a class that you had no interest in taking and were unsure of how to do something? there's no difference.

and wow, there are a lot of morons in this thread.

anyway, i digress, thanks guys.

and bork, if you even need help actually becoming a winning poker player, let me know.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Noonan,

There's something that the above (serious) replies neglected, which is that the maximum score on each type of assignment might not be identical. In fact, they usually aren't, unless the instructor has been careful to construct the grades that way. For example, if the tests are graded out of 100 points, but the quizzes only 20 points, the above formula will NOT work.

You need to convert all the scores to the same range, multiply them by their individual weights, and add up the result. The easiest way to convert all the grades to the same range is to just divide each score by the maximum possible score for that type of grade.

An example:

Tests: 45%, maximum test grade is 100 pts.
Quizzes: 20%, maximum quiz grade is 20 pts.
Participation/Attendance: 15%, Max participation/attendance grade is 10 pt.
Online Assignments: 10%, Max online Assignments grade is 100 pts.
Concert Reports: 10%, Max concert report is 5 pts.

Assume a student has an 85 test average, a 15 quiz average, a 10 part./att. grade, a 95 online grade, and a 4 concert report grade.

That student's final grade would be given by:

(85/100)*0.45 +
(15/20)*0.2 +
(10/10)*0.15 +
(95/100)*0.1 +
(4/5)*0.1 = 0.86 = 86%

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
she's not a math person. that's why she's not going to be a math teacher. she's a terrific piano player. ... haven't you ever taken a class that you had no interest in taking and were unsure of how to do something? there's no difference.

[/ QUOTE ]

So she loves music but is so poor at math she can't even assign grades in her own class. I guess you just proved why just because you aren't a "math person" or math teacher, you still need basic mathematical skills.

I'm not an English teacher but still think its important to understand English.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
she's not a math person. that's why she's not going to be a math teacher. she's a terrific piano player. ... haven't you ever taken a class that you had no interest in taking and were unsure of how to do something? there's no difference.

[/ QUOTE ]

So she loves music but is so poor at math she can't even assign grades in her own class. I guess you just proved why just because you aren't a "math person" or math teacher, you still need basic mathematical skills.

I'm not an English teacher but still think its important to understand English.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is such a dumb statement i can't even come up with a witty thing to say about it.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Being good at something doesn't automatically qualify a person to teach it. Teaching is a separate skillset.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
she's not a math person. that's why she's not going to be a math teacher. she's a terrific piano player. ... haven't you ever taken a class that you had no interest in taking and were unsure of how to do something? there's no difference.

[/ QUOTE ]

So she loves music but is so poor at math she can't even assign grades in her own class. I guess you just proved why just because you aren't a "math person" or math teacher, you still need basic mathematical skills.

I'm not an English teacher but still think its important to understand English.

[/ QUOTE ]


I CAN HAS LANG WISH?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Noonan,

There's something that the above (serious) replies neglected, which is that the maximum score on each type of assignment might not be identical. In fact, they usually aren't, unless the instructor has been careful to construct the grades that way. For example, if the tests are graded out of 100 points, but the quizzes only 20 points, the above formula will NOT work.

You need to convert all the scores to the same range, multiply them by their individual weights, and add up the result. The easiest way to convert all the grades to the same range is to just divide each score by the maximum possible score for that type of grade.

An example:

Tests: 45%, maximum test grade is 100 pts.
Quizzes: 20%, maximum quiz grade is 20 pts.
Participation/Attendance: 15%, Max participation/attendance grade is 10 pt.
Online Assignments: 10%, Max online Assignments grade is 100 pts.
Concert Reports: 10%, Max concert report is 5 pts.

Assume a student has an 85 test average, a 15 quiz average, a 10 part./att. grade, a 95 online grade, and a 4 concert report grade.

That student's final grade would be given by:

(85/100)*0.45 +
(15/20)*0.2 +
(10/10)*0.15 +
(95/100)*0.1 +
(4/5)*0.1 = 0.86 = 86%

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL (I'm assuming this is mocking)

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Noonan,

There's something that the above (serious) replies neglected, which is that the maximum score on each type of assignment might not be identical. In fact, they usually aren't, unless the instructor has been careful to construct the grades that way. For example, if the tests are graded out of 100 points, but the quizzes only 20 points, the above formula will NOT work.

You need to convert all the scores to the same range, multiply them by their individual weights, and add up the result. The easiest way to convert all the grades to the same range is to just divide each score by the maximum possible score for that type of grade.

An example:

Tests: 45%, maximum test grade is 100 pts.
Quizzes: 20%, maximum quiz grade is 20 pts.
Participation/Attendance: 15%, Max participation/attendance grade is 10 pt.
Online Assignments: 10%, Max online Assignments grade is 100 pts.
Concert Reports: 10%, Max concert report is 5 pts.

Assume a student has an 85 test average, a 15 quiz average, a 10 part./att. grade, a 95 online grade, and a 4 concert report grade.

That student's final grade would be given by:

(85/100)*0.45 +
(15/20)*0.2 +
(10/10)*0.15 +
(95/100)*0.1 +
(4/5)*0.1 = 0.86 = 86%

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right. I was assuming all grades were out of 100, which is what you did, but one step backwards.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Is this whole thread a level?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

I wish the public education system would teach more practical math stuff (well very similar to EV calculations we do in poker) that we can take advantage of many times through the course of our life when making various decisions.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Borodog,

I am sure you have experience with this:

What is the procedure if the test averages are around 40%?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Is this whole thread a level?

[/ QUOTE ]

Every time I am convinced it is someone posts something that makes me doubt it. Like I read OP, didnt think he was levelling, read the responses and his reubttal, figured he was, then read some outrage from OP, so maybe he isnt, read Boro's post, back to levelling, I really have no idea whats going on. I'm treating the whole thing like a level.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

i'm not positive whats going on here, but this thread makes me feel good about myself

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Seriously, be smarter.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

I think this is seriously worrying for any real teacher, but if she is a vocational instrument teacher, not an educator, then I think its OK.

I wouldn't be too worried if a boxing instructor needed a double check on putting a class grade together either.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Noonan,

There's something that the above (serious) replies neglected, which is that the maximum score on each type of assignment might not be identical. In fact, they usually aren't, unless the instructor has been careful to construct the grades that way. For example, if the tests are graded out of 100 points, but the quizzes only 20 points, the above formula will NOT work.

You need to convert all the scores to the same range, multiply them by their individual weights, and add up the result. The easiest way to convert all the grades to the same range is to just divide each score by the maximum possible score for that type of grade.

An example:

Tests: 45%, maximum test grade is 100 pts.
Quizzes: 20%, maximum quiz grade is 20 pts.
Participation/Attendance: 15%, Max participation/attendance grade is 10 pt.
Online Assignments: 10%, Max online Assignments grade is 100 pts.
Concert Reports: 10%, Max concert report is 5 pts.

Assume a student has an 85 test average, a 15 quiz average, a 10 part./att. grade, a 95 online grade, and a 4 concert report grade.

That student's final grade would be given by:

(85/100)*0.45 +
(15/20)*0.2 +
(10/10)*0.15 +
(95/100)*0.1 +
(4/5)*0.1 = 0.86 = 86%

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL (I'm assuming this is mocking)

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would you assume that?

Anyway, In addition to what Boro said, I noticed that some college instructors who used a weighted grade system similar to the one in the OP would simplify the averaging process by grading the different parts of the class on the appropriate scale to begin with. So, for example, the tests would be graded 0-45, the quizes 0-20, etc. If the professor had enough forsight to do this, all you have to do is add up the various averages to get the total percentage from 0-100.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

i'm not 100% sure what "level" means- but whether OP is kidding or not, there are definitely many people who would be incapable of solving this problem without help (>50% of world population?). while i know that to be true, it is almost hard for me to comprehend.
i think the explanation is something along the lines of: since i am a method X thinker, i have trouble comprehending the existence of method Y (and vice versa).

'method Y' obviously does not prevent people from surviving to adulthood, having kids, and otherwise being successful. there might even be advantages to it (since i don't understand it, i don't know what they would be).

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
I think this is seriously worrying for any real teacher, but if she is a vocational instrument teacher, not an educator, then I think its OK.

[/ QUOTE ]

The issue isn't how their lack of basic math logic effects teaching a music course.

How do we possibly expect someone with a university degree who can't take weighted averages to understand a debate centered around something such as economic or monetary policy?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Borodog,

I am sure you have experience with this:

What is the procedure if the test averages are around 40%?

[/ QUOTE ]

My test averages average 50%, by design. I just give the top 10% As, the next 20% Bs, the next 40% Cs, the next 20% Ds, and the lowest 10% fail.

Re: Averaging Grades
 

Borodog,

Are you a physics professor?

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
she's not a math person. that's why she's not going to be a math teacher. she's a terrific piano player. that's why she's going to teach music.

[/ QUOTE ] Because math and music have nothing whatever in common...

Re: Averaging Grades
 

[ QUOTE ]
Borodog,

Are you a physics professor?

[/ QUOTE ]

Lecturer. It's like Professor Light.