Consider thinking of early exams and assignments as requirements for participation and good faith effort. Doing poorly on them would result in a PIP(performance

Consider thinking of early exams and assignments as requirements for participation and good faith effort. Doing poorly on them would result in a PIP(performance improvement plan) but poor performance in early tasks shouldn't doom you. I recall some classes in Uni that would have, say, three major exams. And if you had adequate participation and grades in smaller assignments, the score of the lowest exam would be replaced with the 2nd lowest, in order to smooth out a negative deviation. I think it achieves what is being discussed here: Either you did really well through the course but had a bad final, or you didn't grasp the material early on but ended up getting it in the end.