A Comparative Analysis of Results on Programming Exams

Harland, J., D\'Souza, D. and Hamilton, M.

Measuring student performance on assessments is increasingly important, especially when mapping outcomes to particular topics in a university subject. In this paper we investigate the classification of exam questions. In particular, we examine the performance of students in two programming subjects, as a means of determining how we can measure the difficulty of a particular question. This can not only serve as a calibration for the expectations of instructors about the difficulty levels, but also as a means of examining what it means for a question to be considered difficult.

Cite as: Harland, J., D\'Souza, D. and Hamilton, M. (2013). A Comparative Analysis of Results on Programming Exams. In Proc. Fifteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2013) Adelaide, Australia. CRPIT, 136. Angela Carbone and Jacqueline Whalley Eds., ACS. 117-126

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