The course grading criteria are listed below:

Note that a grade of “D” is considered passing (see http://www.nvcc.edu/catalog/cat2018/policies/grades.html), but may not meet the prerequisites for some courses, such as calculus.

Please keep a personal record of all your grades so that you can compute your own course grade.  There is NO extra credit in this course!

NOVA Online courses have a requirement for proctored assessments to maintain compliance with our accreditation standards and the Higher Education Act’s identity verification requirements for online courses. College-wide, proctored assessments prove identity so students must show overall passing levels on the proctored assessments in order to pass an online course. In this online course, the average of all proctored assessment scores must be a passing percentage of 60 percent in order for you to pass the course regardless of your scores on other graded activities. Please contact your instructor if you require any clarification on this proctored assessment policy.

Grading Scale

Your final grade will be based on the following scale. You must have an exam average of 60% and an overall average of 60% to pass the course with a D. Students must earn a "C" or better in this course to take the next course in sequence or to transfer the course.

The ALEKS online class site is where you will find an online version of the text, video tutorials, practice problems, personal study guide, and your assigned homework and quizzes.  You may start using the site as soon as it is opened; just create an account and get started.  If your instructor has sent an announcement with an Financial Aid Access Code, you may follow the directions to use that code for up to 14 days.  Please note that when you do buy the code, the amount of time purchased starts from the first time you accessed the course in ALEKS, not from when you bought the code.  If the temporary code expires, your work will not be lost and you will be able to access everything once you purchase access.  If you would like to purchase a hard copy of the textbook, a loose-leaf version is available for a nominal fee.

Your homework assignments are completed in ALEKS.  You have an unlimited number of attempts to master each homework topic in ALEKS.  Homework must be completed weekly before taking the exam for each module, however, you are encouraged to review your homework when preparing for quizzes and both homework and quizzes when preparing for exams.

Prior to taking each exam, you are required to complete a real-world application project for each module.  The directions can be found in the associated module.  You should start work on this early in the week rather than waiting until the last minute.  You should expect to spend at least 1 hour on each project.  These projects will serve as a review for the exam.  The original post to the discussion forum is due by 11:59pm three (3) days before the associated Exam is due. Replies (2) are due by 11:59pm of the last day that the associated Exam is due.  The original post and the two replies for each exam project are required in order to receive full credit. **NOTE: The discussion forum has been set up so that you will not be able to read any classmates' project postings until you have posted your original post for each project. This is to make sure that you are not influenced by someone else's work. After you post your original assignment response, you will then be able to read and reply to other postings.  Only your first project submittal will be graded.

Exams are proctored.  You may not use your book or the ALEKS site, but you may use a scientific calculator when testing.  You must show your work.  Any scratch paper used when testing should be organized and readable and submitted when the exam has been completed.  Points will be deducted if only answers are noted on the exam without showing how the answer was determined.

There are no Exam retakes or extensions! If you have questions regarding the Exams, please contact your instructor beforehand.