Tutorial Homework Grading
After each weekly tutorial session (except the last), you should complete the associated tutorial
homework, which has the same name as the tutorial you worked through that week. The tutorial
homework is due the week following the associated tutorial at 2 PM on Monday. During weeks
affected by holidays, any special instructions will be given in your tutorial session. Homework
should be placed in the drop-boxes at the North entrance of the Physics-Astronomy B-Building
(the building in which you have your tutorial and lab sections). The homework will be graded
and returned to you at the start of your next tutorial section.
Not all of the homework for any given tutorial will be assigned. See the tutorial website for the
problems to be completed each week (http://depts.washington.edu/uwphyttl).
Each week, only a portion of the assigned homework problems will be graded in-depth by your
tutorial TA. This part of the homework will be worth 8 points. You will also receive 2 points for
completing the remainder of the assigned homework, for a total of 10 points.
The tutorials emphasize concepts and critical thinking. A large fraction of the points awarded on
homework will be for explanations that are complete and concise. Correct answers accompanied
by partial or missing explanations will be awarded only some of the points.
The general rubric for each problem or part of a problem is as follows:
1) The correct answer alone will be worth less than half of the total points.
2) More than half of the points will be for the explanation of your reasoning. You must provide
a complete and concise explanation of reasoning, including the foundational principles and
the logical steps you applied to obtain the answer.
a) Explanations that simply re-state your answer or the problem statement will not be
awarded points. For example, the statement “The speed of the cart is increasing because it
is going faster” will not be given any points. It does not explain the change in speed of
the cart.
b) Incomplete explanations will only be awarded only partial points. If the correct
explanation involves two or three logical steps “I know that A is true so therefore B is
true so therefore the answer is C,” you need to write down all those steps to obtain all
possible points.
c) Clear language and handwriting is important. If your tutorial TA cannot understand your
explanation or cannot read it, you will not be awarded points.
The rubric above is similar to that used for grading the long-answer questions on each exam
(including the tutorial questions). You should use the feedback you receive on your homework
from your TA to help study for the exams. If an exam question asks for an explanation of
reasoning, then the explanation will be worth at least half of the points for that question and your
explanation should be clear and easy to understand.