Quiz scoring and answers

Hi, all! Here is how quiz scoring worked: I expected an average grade of 6. (The actual average was 6.2) Quizzes that scored 6/10 neither add nor subtract points from your final class grade. Quizzes that scored above 6 add points to your final class grade: a 7/10 gives +0.5 points, an 8/10 gives +1.0, a 9/10 gives +1.5, and a 10/10 gives +2.0. Quizzes that scored below 6 subtract points from your final class grade: 5/10 gives -0.33, 4/10 gives -0.67, 3/10 gives -1.0, and 2/10 gives -1.33.

That is how quizzes will be graded in the future, with a maximum benefit or penalty of 2 points. The expected average might shift up from a 6 to a 7 a little bit later in the semester, however.

Average grades on the two parts of the quiz were 2.6/4 for context and 3.9/6 for thematic significance. The thematic significance part of these IDs is especially difficult, I think, because we have all been trained to think about significance in the text but not about significance for the text. Here are two examples of quizzes that gave strong, articulate considerations of the thematic significance of this passage for the text:

Jenna (306) wrote

I think that the quotations encompass Eliot's larger argument about marriage. She refers to the heart's desires as a "tide" where things "come and go." If our heart's desires are not consistent, but they are "running mesengers" to our heads, how can we make a decision of permanence like marriage? Marriage is a bond for life; however, Eliot makes it clear that our feelings contradict this certainty.

Emily A. (306) wrote

The line that stood out right away was that when people go on a long journey, they "get tired to death of each other." I think this line ties the name of the book (Waiting for Death) to Dorothea and Casaubon, portending the death of their marriage. This scene also draws on the idea of web of affinities in Middlemarch -- Mrs. Cadwallader's connection to everyone, how her words can affect Dorothea in spite of a strong relationship. Celia's blushing is significant to the passage...sets up a contrast between the sisters -- Celia is always calm and rational, we see a contrast in Dorothea.