1. Do the homework yourself. Not only does it count in the grading of the course, but it should let you know how well your understanding the material. Doing the homework will also prepare you for the Mid-Term Exams and Final Exams. Don't expect verbatim homework problems, however. Please do the homework problems on 8.5 X 11 inch paper, folded vertically, with your name , Physics 4C, the date, and the assignment number on the upper half of the outside.


2. Read the material in the text before you come to lecture. It's much harder to understand a lecture if you don't know at least a rough outline of what the lecture is going to be about. Also if you find something obscure in the reading then you'll be able to ask about it when I get to it in lecture. The readings are indicated in the course outline. In general we will skip the starred sections, unless I say otherwise.


3. Attend the lectures. I'll try to supplement the reading in the book through a different presentations, by working examples, and doing demonstrations. By attending the lectures you'll also get an idea of what I consider to be important, and from a practical point of view this will be useful to you on exams. Finally, you are responsible for everything in lecture even if you don't attend. If I decide to move a exam date (not very likely) and announce this during a lecture that you missed you are still responsible for this.


4. Plan to spend a minimum of 15 hours a week outside of class on this course. This course requires significantly more time in order to understand the material than some other courses.


5. As soon as something is unclear please ask me to clarify it, either during class, or in person during my office hours, or by e-mail or phone. You can also get help from the graduate TAs. They staff McLane 124 about 20 hours per week. The schedule for the TA hours is posted outside the door of McLane 124.

TENTATIVE Course Schedule (updated 2005 August 4). Always do the readings before class:

Please note:

Don't miss class. Listening to lectures and participating in discussions are much more effective than reading someone else's class notes. Active participation is even better: it will help you retain what you are learning.

Sorry, but Dr. Ringwald cannot give make-ups for mid-term exams, nor can Dr. Ringwald give mid-term or final exams in advance, not even for students who have legitimate reasons for being absent (e.g. job interviews, illness documented by a physician's note, deaths in the immediate family that can be documented), or for students who are participating in University-sponsored activities, such as athletics or theatre. If any student must miss a mid-term exam, the part of the course grade for which that mid-term exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%.

This is really the only possible solution, since it takes about eight hours of Dr. Ringwald's time to prepare one of his cheat-proof exams, each of which must be different for every student who wants a make-up exam or an exam in advance (since in the past students who were allowed to take make-up and advance exams did attempt to abuse the privilege by attempting use the situation to cheat). It is therefore quite impossible for Dr. Ringwald to give make-up exams or exams in advance without very substantial additional cost in his time (and Dr. Ringwald is already working well over 100 hours per week, thank you very much, mainly creating opportunities for good students). (If students at Fresno State never cheated, this might not be such a difficult problem, but sadly, cheating is common enough to require serious steps to be taken to prevent it.) Scheduling make-up exams or exams in advance, in classes as large as Phys 4C, is also not humanly possible: during Dr. Ringwald's first semesters at Fresno State he did allow make-up and advance exams, and quickly found it impossible to accomodate every student who wanted them, because there simply aren't enough hours in the week for it: this left no choice but to end the practice altogether of giving make-up exams and exams in advance. Even with smaller classes, one can never be sure that a makeup or advance exam was really fair, since it must be different from the regular exam.

If any student must miss the final exam for a very compelling reason (e.g., an illness documented by a physician's note), that student will receive a grade of I (incomplete) for PSci 21 for the semester. It will then be that student's responsibility to contact the university administration in a timely fashion, and make the necessary arrangements to remove the I grade. See the California State University, Fresno General Catalog for regulations concerning the I grade. Only students who can document very compelling reasons to miss final exams (e.g. with a physician's note) will be eligible for incompletes: other students missing the final exam will get a 0% on the Final Exam.

The above paragraph means that if any student's parents or anyone else buys that student a plane ticket or otherwise arranges for that student to leave the Fresno area at the end of the term, the party who bought the ticket or make these arrangements is responsible for knowing when the Final Exam for this course is (listed above), and that students are not allowed to miss the Final Exam for this course for any reason other than an illness documented by a physician's note, or else that student will get a 0% on the Final Exam.

If for any reason a student leaves the classroom while an exam is being given, the student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam. This includes trips to the bathroom, so plan ahead.

Since during exams Dr. Ringwald needs to supervise exams, he will not be able to discuss students' grades or assignment deadlines or to accept assignments during exams, until the exam is over. Dr. Ringwald will be happy to answer any questions about the content of the exam in progress, however.

When taking exams, every student is required to sit in the assigned seat listed in the seating chart given on the front cover of the exam. Not doing so, without the explicit permission of the instructor, will earn a 0% for the exam.

All students are required to remove hats and sunglasses during all exams, because they have in the past been used to aid cheating. Calculators may be used for the exams. Students may not use calculators, pagers, cell phones, or any other devices that can communicate outside the classroom during exams. This constitutes cheating, and any students caught cheating, in this or any other way, will receive an F in the entire course.

Students should NOT collaborate with others on their homework assignments. I used to encourage this, but too many students abused the privilege. Do the homework yourself: you will gain the maximum benefit from it this way. Remember: your grade in this class doesn't depend on how any other student does.

Any student turning in homework that is an exact or near duplicate of the instructor's homework solutions will receive an F in the course, because it is obviously plagiarized from homework solutions that are dishonest for students to have. Remember: you NEED to practice doing these problems yourself for the exams, which count for most of the course grade.