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Reboot: Midterm Assessment Plan

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Overview

• What is a midterm?

• How to calculate your GPA?

• Steps to improve your grades

• Overview the Q-drop process

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What is a Midterm?

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According to student rule 10.15, Near the middle of the fall and spring semesters, a

preliminary report, showing the current progress of all undergraduate students who have

completed less than 30 semester credit hours of course work at Texas A&M University, will

be made available. Preliminary grades are not recorded on the student’s permanent

record.

These preliminary grades are what we refer to as your midterm grades.

There are two different kinds of midterms:

1) Professors tend to refer to the mid-semester exams as ‘midterms’.

2) The Registrar’s Office ask that ‘Midterm grade’ grades be reported for any

undergraduate students who have completed less than 30 semester credit hours. This

presentation is focused on assessing those midterm grades.

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Which students receive

midterm grades?

• Students with less than 30 credit hours from TAMU

• Undergraduate student athletes

• Students with an overall GPA below 2.0

• English Language Institute (ELI) students

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General Engineering

Midterm Holds

• Midterm Watch

– Required to participate in an online Reboot: Midterm Assessment Plan

session

• Midterm Warning

– Required to participate in an online Reboot: Midterm Assessment Plan

session

– Meet with a general engineering advisor or an engineering academy advisor

prior to April 18th

• To schedule an appointment visit swan.tamu.edu/easa and select

Mandatory Midterm Advising Appointment

• Your hold will be removed during your meeting with your advisor

• Advising Required– Class of 2020 need to attend a Entry-to-a-Major workshop

Sign up by going to ERS.tamu.edu

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Other Midterm

Notifications

• Scholarship and Financial Aid

– May need to attend a midterm advising session

– Complete a midterm form

• Academic and Scholastic Deficiency Email Notice

– From Dr. Ann Kenimer

– Sent to all students to notify them of the university policy and

resources

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Important Points about

midterms

• The purpose of a ‘Midterm grade’ is to identify how you are doing in their courses to identify where improvements are needed.

• Midterm grades are not recorded on your permanent record or transcript.

• Midterms are released before the semester drop deadline so that students are able to make an informed decision on whether or not to drop a course.

• Professors are not required to submit Midterm grades. If an X is listed for one of your courses, your professor did not input Midterm grades.

• Submitted Midterm grades may not be based on all points in the class. For example, it may not include attendance points, the latest assignment, or take in account if your professor will curve the class.

It is important to communicate with your professor to find out what scores were used to calculate your midterm grade.

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What is your current

GPA?

To calculate your GPA multiply individual course hours by the letter grade points.

Letter Grade

Points:

A = 4 pts

B = 3 pts

C = 2 pts

D = 1 pts

F = 0 pts

For example:

Course Hours (HRS) Grade Quality Points (Qpts)

MATH 151 4 B (4*3)= 12

ENGR 111 2 A (2*4)= 8

PHYS 218 4 D (4*1)= 4

HIST 105 3 F (3*0)= 0

Total 13 24

Midterm GPA = Total Qpts/HRS = 24/13 = 1.85

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Midterm Grade

Assessment

• The first step towards improvement is to identify where you stand in your individual

courses. Review your syllabus to identify what grades you received on your course

assignments and tests.

• It’s important to understand that this might not be a completely up to date representation

of your current grade. For a more up to date idea of your current course grade, we

recommend you speak with your professors.

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Example Midterm Assessment

• Step 1: Using your syllabus compare your course grades to what you could get

• Step 2: Calculate your course grade percentage

(A/B) x 100 = (149/215) = 69.3 %

• Step 3: Create action steps to ensure you will do better next time

– For example:

• “I am going to start attending SI sessions for this course.”

• “Tuesday I will start making flash cards for Chapters 3 & 4.”

• “ I will go to my professors office hours this week, to review that concept”

Assignment Name Points Received Points Possible

Homework 1 30 30

Quiz 1 15 30

Test 40 50

Quiz 2 14 30

Midterm Exam 50 75

Total A) 149 B) 215

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How to improve your

grades

1. Meet with your professors!

Sitting down with your professor can be a great way to identify where you struggled in the

past and what your options are to improve your course grade.

When you meet with them, consider asking them:

What exactly is my Midterm grade based on?

What tips do you (professor) have to help me learn the material?

Will there be any extra credit opportunities?

Explain to them that you really want to improve in their course and want to understand

the material; you just need some help getting there.

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How to improve your

grades

2. Identify some reasons you might be struggling overall?

If you are struggling with these areas remember to visit the Academic Success Center.

Resources to help with the issues above are located on their website or you can schedule an

appointment with an academic coach or attend a Wednesday Workshop.

Commit to Success

Three week, 6 session workshop is designed to engage students academically and to help students

develop skills that will lead to success.

__ Time Management__ Motivation__ Reading/Writing Skills__ Exam Prep

__ Project/Paper Planning__ Note-Taking Skills__ Stress Management__ Procrastination

__ Goal Setting__ Test Anxiety__ Struggling with the transition from high school

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How to improve your

grade

3. Use your free tutoring resources!

http://studyhub.tamu.edu/ - one stop location for all the resources on campus

Study Help is also posted in the Advising Community for General Engineering Majors or

the Texas A&M Engineering Academies Advising Community in eCampus, under the

tutoring and help sessions link

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How to improve your

grades

4. Talk to your Advisor!

– Discuss Q-drop process – Deadline April 18th

– Withdraw Process – Deadline April 18th

» If all courses are not going well, or if you miss a large amount of class

time due to illness, family emergency or other.

– Tutoring options

– Struggling with Anxiety and Stress Management?

» Student Counseling Service

– Debating your major choice? Or not sure which Engineering is for you?

» Career Counseling

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Q-dropping a course

• You have 6 drops in the State of Texas, 4 of which you can use during your time at Texas A&M.

• Q-drops in 1-hour courses will not count in the Texas A&M limit of 4 but will be included in the state-

mandated limit of 6 dropped courses.

• If a lecture and companion lab are dropped at the same time, this will count as 1 Q-drop rather than

two. (ex. CHEM 107 and 117)

• You must drop both the CHEM Lab and Lecture at the same time if q-dropping the class prior to the

50th day. After the 50th day of class you can drop the lab or the lecture with out dropping the other.

(50th class day is April 4th)

• Student-Athletes (including practice players, managers, and trainers) MUST receive approval from

Athletic Compliance before dropping below 12 hours in a fall or spring semester. These drops will be

forwarded to the Office of the Registrar by Athletic Compliance for processing.

Spring 2017 Q-drop Deadline is April 18th by 5 pm

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Q-drop Check-List

Check if you will maintain full-time status as it can affect scholarships and financial aid. We recommend meeting with an financial aid/scholarship advisor before turning in your form. Their office is located on the 2nd floor of the Pavilion.

If you are q-dropping a math, science or engineering course be sure you understand how that will affect your entry-to-a-major status. Q-dropping a class could delay you going into a major.

Check to see how q-dropping will affect your course selection for next semester. Dropping courses that are prerequisites for next semester may delay your graduation. Discuss this with your academic advisor and review your intended major’s degree plan at catalog.tamu.edu

Remember a q-dropped class does count as an attempt at a course and you can only attempt a class 3 times. Failure to pass a course on the 3rd attempt could lead to dismissal from the College of Engineering

Q-dropped courses are considered excess credit hours. Excess credit hours are those hours attempted by a resident undergraduate student that exceed by more than 30 hours the number of hours required for completion of the degree program in which the student is enrolled. TAMU will charge tuition at the non-resident rate to all students that exceed the semester credit hour limit of their program.

If you decide that the q-drop is the best option for you complete the form and meet with your academic advisor.

Spring 2017 Q-drop Deadline is April 18th by 5 pm

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Questions?

General Engineering and Academy Advising Office

Engineering Activities Building B (EABB)

Advising Appointments

Monday – Friday 9:00 am - 11:30 am

http://swan.tamu.edu/easa

Walk-In Advising

Monday – Friday 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm

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