ERIC Number: ED448178
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2000-Nov-15
Pages: 8
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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Statistics Scores and Testing Time.
Kennedy, Robert L.; McCallister, Corliss J.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the scores students earned on their statistics final examinations and the number of minutes students required to complete the exams. In a previous study, K. Bridges (1985) extended the range of interest in this relationship from a single study to a course-based series, examining data generated from three multiple choice introductory psychology examinations. Little evidence was found to support either linear or nonlinear relationships between performance and order of finish or time required. In this study, the tests contained two parts: mechanical calculations of statistics and interpretations of printouts. Students were allowed unlimited time to complete the tests, and their times ranged from 69 to 305 minutes. Eight graduate-level basic statistics classes from fall terms between 1996 and 1999 were involved in the study, and their pooled group size, for which data were complete, was 97 (69 females and 28 males). The assumption of normality was not consistently met, so Spearman correlations were calculated: -0.30 for females (p=0.01), 0.24 for males (p=0.22), and -0.15 overall (p=0.14). The effect sizes for "r," according to Cohen, were medium for the females and small for the males and overall. That is, for the female students in this study, those who finished more quickly tended to perform better. For males, those who completed the tests quickly did not necessarily do better than those who took greater amounts of time, although there was a small tendency for those who took more time to perform better. Overall, the relationship was minimal. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/SLD)
Descriptors: College Students, Higher Education, Scores, Statistics, Test Length, Test Results, Time, Time Management
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
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Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association (28th, Bowling Green, KY, November 15-17, 2000).