Grades and handing in tests

Whenever I have taken an in-class exam I always wondered if there was a difference in the exam grade between those who turned in the test immediately and those who took their time. At various times in my student career I have had desperate exams and ones I felt better about, and I could never figure out for me if completing a test earlier or later was better. Now that I am a professor I can see if there is any effect on my students.

To do this, I created a hidden grade item called "Midterm order" and "Final order" for each class and then wrote down the order in which students turned in the exam. Obviously students who did not take the exam were not counted, and I also dropped those who did take it but were allowed extra time because they were receiving accommodations for disabilities. Where I combined both exams within a class, I skipped students who took one exam and not the other. For the course grade, I added the midterm order and final order to arrive at a net order. I also noted how many students moved from tercile to tercile in each exam.

On midterms in my class, there are two or three sections. One consists of multiple-choice questions and is worth about half the total points. The questions are drawn from the same questions that students saw when they took the reading quiz for a chapter in our text. The students see the answers to all quiz questions after they have taken the chapter quiz and before the midterm, so these questions are a matter of memorization on the midterm. The second section is a series of identification questions, and students select from a list of terms and for each write its identity and significance. Students see the list of terms before the exam, and they are drawn from our in-class time. It appears to me that students likely use Wikipedia and not their notes from class as a study guide for these terms. For some classes I added a third section, worth just a few points, that asked students to rank the topics in our class based on how important the student thinks they are.

The final exam for a given class has the same sections as the midterm (covering chapters and class meetings after the midterm) and adds a comprehensive essay that asks students to answer a question across the scope of the class. Students know the question options before the final exam.

Spring 2012 | History 314: United States, 1945 to the present

Midterm (80 points or 8% of the course grade)

Thirty-three students took the midterm and received a final grade for the class. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 66.8):

1. 67.5
2. 71.9
3. 55.8

Final exam (160 points or 16% of the course grade)

Thirty students took the final exam. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 138.1):

1. 142.9 (9 were also in the first tercile for the midterm)
2. 141.7 (7 were also in the second tercile for the midterm)
3. 129.7 (8 were also in the third tercile for the midterm)

Course grade

For the course grade, I created a weighted order by doubling the order for the final for each student and adding that to the order for the midterm (tercile membership did not change with an unweighted sum order). All 30 of the students who took the final also took the midterm. Average GPA on a 4-point scale by tercile (average for these 30 was 2.5):

1. 2.6
2. 2.6
3. 2.4

Given the consistent membership in each tercile, it is not a surprise that the performance of each group relative to the others did not change across the three measurements. If I assume that the better prepared students earned higher scores on exams and grades in the course, then it appears that the students who were less prepared for the exams at least used the time allowed to try to earn a good grade. Tercile membership did not predict success on either grades or scores, as in each group there was at least one student who earned at least 90% of the points possible and/or an A grade in the class.

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Fall 2011 | History 313: United States, 1865-1945

Midterm (80 points or 8% of the course grade)

Thirty-six students took the midterm and received a final grade for the class. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 66.1):

1. 61.6
2. 68.9
3. 68

Final exam (160 points or 16% of the course grade)

Thirty of the students who took the final exam are included. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 138.8):

1. 136.6 (6 were also in the first tercile for the midterm)
2. 138.5 (5 were also in the second tercile for the midterm)
3. 141.2 (7 were also in the third tercile for the midterm)

Course grade

For the course grade, I created a weighted order by doubling the order for the final for each student and adding that to the order for the midterm. Twenty-nine students received an order number for both the final exam and the midterm. Average GPA on a 4-point scale by tercile (average for these 29 was 3.0):

1. 2.9 (10 students)
2. 3.2 (10 students)
3. 3.0 (9 students)

In this group there was one student whose tercile membership changed based on a weighted vs. unweighted order sum, but that did not change the relative GPA of each tercile (i.e., the first tercile still had the lowest GPA). This class had more movement between terciles on the midterm and final, but the group that had the lowest performance throughout was in the first tercile. Unlike spring 2012, this class appeared to have students who did not make effective use of the time allowed on the exam. Like spring 2012, tercile membership did not predict success on either grades or scores, as in each group there was at least one student who earned at least 90% of the points possible and/or an A grade in the class.

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Spring 2011 | History 313: United States, 1865-1945

Midterm (100 points or 10% of the course grade)

Thirty-nine students who took the midterm are included. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 88.7):

1. 84
2. 91.3
3. 90.8

Final exam (200 points or 20% of the course grade)

Thirty-three students who took the final exam are included. Average scores by tercile (overall average was 175.7):

1. 175.9 (7 were also in the first tercile for the midterm)
2. 168.4 (5 were also in the second tercile for the midterm)
3. 182.6 (6 were also in the third tercile for the midterm)

Course grade

For the course grade, I created a weighted order by doubling the order for the final for each student and adding that to the order for the midterm (tercile membership did not change with an unweighted sum order). All 33 of the students who were counted for the final also took the midterm. Average GPA on a 4-point scale by tercile (average for these 30 was 2.9):

1. 2.7
2. 2.8
3. 3.2

In this group there were two students whose tercile membership changed based on a weighted vs. unweighted order sum, but that did not change the relative GPA of each tercile (i.e., the first tercile still had the lowest GPA). Like my fall 2011 class, this group had more movement between terciles, but the lowest-performing group was not consistent. It is difficult to make assumptions about this group, though as with the others tercile membership did not predict success on either grades or scores, as in each group there was at least one student who earned at least 90% of the points possible and/or an A grade in the class.