Final exam and course grades posted - We're done!

Grades for Final exam, and the final grades for the course, have been posted on the Grades page.

The average on the exam was good, 84.5%. Congratulations, it was a tough test!

The final course grades were curved by the addition of 2.375% (ca. 9.5 points) to each toal percentage - this represents moving the highest score acheived up to 100%. This also nicely drops the grade cut-offs into gaps in the grade distribution.

I'll post these scores in a few minutes. probably before you see this post.

Thanks for a great semester - congratulations on your success!

FOUR very important items:

1. The "take-home" section of the Final exam : Print one out, and complete to turn on on exam day
• Final exam Take-home section (3Mbyte PDF)
2. The starting time for Final exam has been pushed back to 9:00AM (from 8:00AM) on April 9th. DE students will, of course, organize their exam with the folks in DELTA as usual.
3. Student feedback form : Print one of these forms out, complete it, and drop off on exam day

• Student feedback form (39Kbyte PDF)
1. Discussion session final grades have been posted on the Grades page

Midterm Exam #2 grades posted

Grades for Midterm exam #2, and the last couple of Discussion sessions, have been posted on the Grades page.

The average was bit lower than usual, at 71%. Bear in mind that in the end only your best 10 Discussion session scores will count (you'll discard the lowest 2 or 3 scores), and in general the Final exam scores are better than the second midterm scores.

Once you review your exam (I'll have them in class Monday, oryou can pick them up in lab or in my office), if you have questions about your score, please feel free to ask.

Discussion session posted

Friday's Discussion session on Nanobacteria has been posted.

Discussion session poll

Friday's Discussion session is currently listed as "TBA". So, let's take a poll of some potential tpopics, and decide democratically.

Vote (by email to james_brown@ncsu.edu) for one of the following papers:

Paper/topic		# votes
loser	RNase P without RNA: Identification and functional reconstitution of the human mitochodrial tRNA processing enzyme This would be a general review of RNase P (a ribozyme), mitochondrial gene expression, and the replacement of the ribozyme in mammalian mitochondria with a protein-only enzyme	|
Winner	Nanobacteria are mineralo fetuin complexes Are Nanobacteria real? One of the discoveries of the century, or the "cold fusion" of Microbiology?	|||| |||| ||||
loser	Genome streamlining in a cosmopolitan oceanic bacterium Isolation and characterization (by genome sequencing) of a SAR11 species, Pelagibacter ubiquae	||

CORRECTION to Midterm Exam #2 take-home section

In question #1 of the take-home portion of the exam, there is an editing mistake - this question should read (correction in UPPER CASE):

1. For each of the GENERA listed, provide the name of THE PHYLOGENETIC GROUP (PHYLUM), and something about it (1⁄2 point each):

The headings on the table are correct. And the "Something about it" should refer to the GENUS, not the PHYLUM.

Midterm Exam #2 Take-home section

Here is the Take-home section of Midterm exam #2. The rules about what reseources you canand can't use are at the top of page #1. These are due eaither in class when you take the rest of the exam, or if you're taking the course DE, they are due in my office or by email by Monday March 26th at 3:00PM

• Midterm exam #2 take-home section (158 Kbyte PDF)
  
  

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

A few of you had already filled out the Quiz for the Discussion session yesterday before I canceled it, so I'm going to reopen it and let any who wish to do so take it. The score will go into the gradeook, and remember that your top 10 Discussion session grades are added up for the Discussion session grade. So this is a chance to drop a low score!

Take the quiz (if you wish) here:

• Midterm exam #2 review quiz

The option to take this quiz will close FRIDAY March 23rd.

I've posted scores for midterm exam #1 on the Grades page. Ive also posted the last set of scores for the Discussion sessions. I'll have the exams for you to pick up in class on Wednesday, and in MB 452 this week as well.

The high score on the exam was 96, the average was 83.7. This is a hgher average than usual for this first exam - well done! If you're concerned about your score, please feel free to review it with me after you've had chance to look it over yourself.

I've posted scores on the Grades page for the Discussion sessions so far. Please feel free to ask about scores.

MIDTERM EXAM #1

Midterm exam #1 will be given in two sections - a takehome section and an in-class section:

• The take-home section is posted below. The rules are on the front page, and you sign the Honor Pledge that you've obeyed these rules. The Take-home section of the exam is due at the BEGINNING of the in-class exam - you will NOT have access to this while you take the rest of he exam.

  Midterm exam #1 take-home section (269Kbyte PDF)

• The in-class section of the midterm exam will be given Monday (Feb 6) at the normal clas time and place. DE students will arrange for exam proctoring as usual. This section of the exam is designed to be completed in the standard class 50 minutes.

Details about the exams can be found on the Exams page, and we'll review this in the Discussion session Friday.

Due to a techical glitch, only the Course Overview lecture was recorded properly (the battery died midway through the lcture on "What is Diversity?"/ As a result, I've left the recording from last year posted - thse are reasonable substitutes.

Welcome to MB 451 Microbial Diversity!