More on stress levels etc..

[Subbarao Kambhampati <rao@asu.edu>]

The feedback about the "stress factor" (answer to the last
question in the survey)  probably deserves a more serious response
than the 
one I gave.. 

In general, I find it much more appealing to make the course 
challenging, my expectations high, and *then* make the letter grade 
assignment relatively forgiving, than making the course easy, my 
expectations low, and nitpick between 93.5 and 94.7.   Part of
the 
rationale is my conviction that the content of a  course should not
depend 
on where the course is being taught, although the letter grade a student 
gets in a course is of course relative to the others taking that course
in 
that place.

Here are links to final
grade cutoffs/distributions from a previous time this course was
offered, to give you an idea..

http://rakaposhi.eas.asu.edu/f00-marks1.html


Rao


ps: Here is the CNN story about the malfunctioning elevator..

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:2EVWZSo0uc8J:www.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/08/18/doctor.decapitated.ap/+cnn+elevator+houston&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

(once you take 471, all your needs, including those for weekly news
and world report, are taken care freely by the house ;-)