Special announcements go here:

Previous semester first exam examples are on the overheads page

You will need the Course CD's to do exercises 3 and 4

Online sources: Excellent EXCEL Videotutorials from DataPigTechnologies 
 

For each exercise, submit paper copies for grading, and put a copy of the file into the mygateway dropbox for reference. Remember to send after submitting or I won't get it.
Exercise 1--Budgets--due Monday, May 23, 2005 up to three pages. See the video on how to keep a spreadsheet from printing over more than one page
Exercise 2--Factor Rating Due Monday, May 23, 2005 up to three pages.
Exercise 3--LP diet problem due Thursday, June 2. This should be three pages. 
Exercise 4--Simulation with EXTEND due Monday, June 6. This must be a one sheet printout see example
Application Research Project-- Simulation in EXTEND or with Macros in EXCEL, LP with POM-QM or Solver. Real data, novel problem. don't pull something out of a textbook.   Due last day of Class, Thursday, June 9. I won't accept any assignments after June 9, as I am committed to getting everything graded and grades in on time.
 

Attendance at Classes:
No grade will be assigned for attendance directly, but the exams and exercises do a pretty good job of weeding out people who aren't interested enough to come to class. My philosophy on exam questions is that if it is important enough to put on an exam, it's important enough to cover in class. The book is likely to be much less focused and material in the book that isn't covered in class won't be on exams.  Exams follow very much what is covered in class, and much of the material is either not treated in the book, or has a different approach. 
It is very difficult to get a passing grade in this course if you skip classes. There is no make-up tutoring for people who can't make it to class. If you miss a class, get notes from someone who takes good notes. 

Computer Exercises:
My vision for this course is as a hands-on learning experience. To achieve this, everyone must do their own assignments. Drop Dead dates for the assignments allow extra time for the myriad difficulties inherent in technological pursuits (i.e. %$#@! computers), illness, and other delays. Plan to finish and turn in assignments before these "drop-dead" dates to avoid getting zeroes for late and missing assignments. Late assignments won't be accepted or will be discounted unless there is prior permission. 

Extra credit is sometimes awarded for doing something novel on one of the regular assignments. Extra credit isn't awarded to people who don't complete the basic assignments. 

Working together can be very useful, but it is very important to actually do the exercises yourself and understand what's going on. Consult with others, but generate your own data and submit only your own work. Note that the exercises are designed to be personalized to some degree to encourage this. If assignments submitted are very similar in form and substance to someone else's then both parties will share a zero for the assignment. 

Exams
cover books, lectures, supplemental readings, handouts and exercises. Exams are closed book but allow one sheet of notes. No make-up exams or switching sections without prior permission. A grade of zero will be assigned for exams missed without prior consent. You are expected to know definitions and terms.  Study groups are beneficial. 
Exams or other assignments submitted for review of parts may be subject to more thorough review and a grade might go down. "Selective recounts" are often unfair to other students and encourage churning and biased results.
Exams and Computer exercises are designed and analyzed to detect copying and other cheating.  Cheating on exams or assignments is not tolerated and will result in formal disciplinary action. 

reporting final grades: 
Grade breaks are at 90, 80, 70, and 60 with few pluses and minuses as I believe they penalize good studemts.  Instead, I use the application report to decide borderline cases. 

Final grades are reported on time and available online.  Please do not call me to get your final grade. Please especially don't call to "discuss your grade" while I am working on it. I will probably not be very accessible by phone. If you want, or need more detail, E-mail me so I can send you a copy and paste from my grade sheet. Grades are not adjusted by offering students opportunities to do "extra credit assignments" or regrade selected assignments or redo work after the end of the semester. 
Historical Course Grade Distribution

Excused grades
are available until the last drop day.  After that, the grade assigned reflects performance.  Excused grades are not available to students caught cheating. 

Delayed Grades
On rare occasions, a delayed grade is assigned because an extraordinary circumstance prevents a student who is doing well from completing some requirement by the time grades are due.  Example- someone delivers a baby on the day of the last exam and makes a reasonable judgement call to do it at the hospital instead of while taking the exam.   Delayed grades are not an open opportunity to  procrastinate on assignments, get more time to study for exams, or try again for free when things aren't going well. 

Course Evaluation:
This course is important to me, and I want to make it better. I learn a lot by teaching this course and from student suggestions.  Written comments are much more useful than the summary statistics I get from filled in bubbles. The comments you write on the course evaluations don't get to me until months after grades are in and are anonymous, so you should feel comfortable to write what you think.  I routinely share these comments with my area coordinator ("boss") Dr. Robert Nauss.  If you would rather make a comment to him directly, his E-mail address is robert_nauss@umsl.edu