Determination of Entrance Exam Scores as a Valid Predictor for Final Grade in BIOL 213 Through Data Visualizations

ANGELA K. SHAFFER

CDS301

DECEMBER 12, 2014

Starting in Fall 2013, George Mason students who enrolled in BIOL 213 (Cell Biology) were issued an entrance exam on the first day of lab and the same test again as an exit exam the last day of lab. The purpose of the entrance and exit exams was to assess the knowledge that students enrolled in BIOL 213 have of biology entering and exiting the course.

The objective of this data analysis is to determine if the entrance exam is a good predictor of how well a student will do in the course. The hypothesis is that a student who has prior knowledge of biology or has taken an introductory biology class will perform better in BIOL 213 than someone who has not and the entrance exam should reflect this.

Other factors, including first exam score and participation in the form of in-class quizzes, were analyzed to see if they provide a correlation to a student’s overall class performance. Additionally, the scores for the entrance exam was correlated to the exit exam scores to see if the exit exam scores improved.

Data† Description The data for the entrance and exit exam visualizations include two semesters worth (fall 2013 and spring 2014) of exam and final grades for students from four different BIOL 213 instructors.

Question 29 on the entrance exam asks the student to “Choose the highest level of preparation you’ve had for this class.” in order to access the student’s knowledge of biology entering BIOL 213. Since the hypothesis is that students who have knowledge of biology prior to taking BIOL 213 will do better in the course, student answers to question 29 were correlated to final course grade.

To test the validity of the entrance exam as a predictor for course performance, the entrance exam score was correlated to final grade for each student. Since the entrance exam and exit exam have exactly the same knowledge questions, the entrance exam score was also correlated to the exit exam score to see if the exit score improved.

Class participation and first exam score were additional factors considered as predictors of student class performance and a separate data set from fall 2012 and spring 2013 showing in-class quiz grades vs. final grades, and first exam score vs. final grades, was used to visualize these relationships. † The data used for these visualizations was obtained with permission from George Mason University’s undergraduate biology department. All data has been de-identified and IRB approval was obtained for this study.

Entrance/Exit Exam vs. Final Grade

Entrance vs. Exit Exam Scores

Class participation and first exam grade are better predictors for course grade.

Taking a preparatory biology course does not predict a student’s performance in BIOL 213.

Discussion

This project analyzed fall 2013 and spring 2014 entrance/exit exam data, however I will be working with faculty from GMU’s biology dept. in the near future to analyze additional BIOL 213 course sections not included in this initial data set. The first exam grades for this data set were not available at the start of this project, nor were participation grades, and I think correlating participation and first exam grades to final grade for this data set would support the observation in Figs 7 & 8 (which used data from fall 2012 and spring 2013)—that first exam and/or in-class participation are better predictors for how a student will perform overall in BIOL 213.

Appendix Figures 1 – 8 MATLAB Code:

Fall 2013 BIOL 213 Data (Figs 1, 3, & 5)

Spring 2014 BIOL 213 data (Figs 2, 4, & 6)

Fall 2012 - Spring 2013 Quiz Data (Figs 7 & 8)

Fig 9 Excel file

Data Files:

Fall 2013 CSV file

Spring 2014 CSV file

Fall 2012 - Spring 2013 TXT file

Shared folder containing all project files: CDS301_SHAFFER_FP