69 students took Quiz #1 in-class last week and 59 students turned in take-home quizzes. Here are some statistics on how the class performed:
- 40-50 points. 13 students scored in this range on the in-class quiz. After considering take-home results, this number rose to 23 students.
- 30-39.5 points. 33 students scored in this range on the in-class quiz. After considering the take-home results, this number fell to 31 students (more students rose out of this group via the take-home than entered from below).
- 20-29.5 points. 18 students scored in this range on the in-class quiz. After considering the take-home results, this number fell to just 12 students.
- 10-19.5 points. 5 students scored in this range on the in-class quiz. After considering the take-home results, this number fell to just 3 students.
As you can see, the take-home quiz appears to have given many students a boost (in fact, only 16 of 59 scored noticeably worse on the take-home quiz; see below). This data should strongly encourage anyone who wants to improve their understanding of the material (as well as their scores) to attempt the take-home quizzes.
I also took a closer look at how students performed on the take-home and how this affected student scores.
Of the 59 students who took the take-home, 27 students saw their scores go up by a significant amount (arbitrarily defined as at least 2 points or 4%). 1 of these rising students had scored in the 40’s on the in-class quiz, but many more had begun with lower in-class scores: 30’s (14 students), 20’s (10 students), 10’s (2 students).
Perhaps because a different grading policy was applied to the take-home and in-class quizzes, 16 students scored markedly lower on the take-home quiz (arbitrarily defined as a drop of greater than 2 points or 4%). These were mostly students who had done quite well on the in-class quiz: 40’s (5 students), 30’s (10 students), 20’s (1 student).
Of course, when you begin with a high in-class score, it is simultaneously harder to raise your score via the take-home quiz and easier to see your take-home quiz score fall below what you achieved in-class (fortunately, you are not penalized by this). But it does demonstrate an important point: it is hard to write down ‘perfect’ answers for all of the quiz problems. No one should blindly trust the answers provided by a classmate. Your comrades can point you in the right direction, but you need to check for yourself whether you are completely satisfied with each answer.
For information on how these scores compare to last year’s class, how quiz scores typically change during the term, and how I think about quiz scores, please read this post from Dec 1, 2013.