A Quantitative Analysis of Uncertainty in the Grading of Written Exams in Mathematics and Physics
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Hugo Lewi Hammer 1 * , Laurence Habib 1
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1 Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, NORWAY* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The most common way to grade students in courses at university and university college level is to use final written exams. The aim of final exams is generally to provide a reliable and a valid measurement of the extent to which a student has achieved the learning outcomes for the course. A source of uncertainty in grading students based on an exam is that such exams only consist of a limited number of exercises. We investigate the extent of this uncertainty by means of a statistical analysis of the results of 23 different examinations taken by 2788 students. The amount of uncertainty is substantial and typically ranges over three grades. Increasing the duration of the examination decreases the uncertainty, however.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2016, Volume 12, Issue 4, 975-989

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2016.1240a

Publication date: 17 Jun 2016

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