My comments about the final exam this past Thursday apparently have raised the ire of a few members in the class.  My comments, which were made as a note about the seriousness that students should take in relation to the Box Company project, left some with the impression that a few students had already been exempted from the final.  This is not the case. 

My purpose in making the comment on Thursday was not to indicate that anyone had definitively been dropped from the final; rather, I wanted to encourage everyone in the class by noting that I would consider dropping students who exhibited exceptional work in the course (i.e., exams, projects, etc.) and that the Box Company project would be an important part of this evaluation. 

In summary, I will most likely let some, perhaps quite a few, students be exempt from the final if I determine that each of these students has performed at a level throughout the course that demonstrates that he or she has grasped both the basic content and the higher-level concepts presented in the book and during in-class discussions.