Here's a brief explanation of how I estimate your
overall grade. This will also give you some idea of how
PackBack participation affects your overall grade. This
might be a little confusing, so proceed at your own risk.
Let's assume the following scores
The first estimate doesn't drop any quiz scores.
I try to estimate the grade you will have at the end of the
semester if you keep on doing as you have been doing.
Because of this I have to guess at what your Quiz #3 and Quiz #4
scores. I assume they will be comparable to your Quiz #1 and
Quiz #2 scores. The 80% value above is the average of 4 quiz
scores plus the writing percentage grade.
If you are not part of the PackBack online discussion I would add
the 0.9 pts of extra credit and end up with an overall average of
80.9%.
PackBack participation at the 5% level (you just read other
student's questions and answers but don't contribute any of your
own) would raise your overall average to 81.9%. It has a
small but beneficial effect.
Neither of these overall grades is 90.0% or above, so this student
will not be exempt from the Final Exam. I compute a second
overall grade after dropping the lowest quiz score.
The 72% is dropped, the 82% Quiz #2
score is left. I assume that the Quiz #3 and Quiz #4
scores will be the same (this might not be very
realistic). The average of the three quiz scores and the
writing percentage grade is 84.5%. Without PackBack the
0.9 pts of extra credit raise this to 85.4%, a solid B. Including
the PackBack score raises this a little bit to 86.2%.