Results of POCAT, Spring 2011

Note: A total of 58 students took the POCAT in Spring '11. The test was administered on three days (April 19, 20, 21). The tests on the three days were very similar to each other but not identical. There were 24 questions in each test, 20 of which were based on the required courses, the 21st was based on CSE 581, the 22nd on CSE 630, the 23rd on CSE 616, and the 24th on CSE 551. For these last four questions, students who had not taken the course could choose the answer "I have not taken the course". In addition, there were two questions about the test, the first about the length of the test ["too long", "too short", or "just right" being answers (a), (b), (c) respectively], the second about the difficulty of the test ["too difficult", "too easy", or "just right" being answers (a), (b), (c) respectively]. Most students felt the test was the right length and difficulty; the answers to these questions are not included in the tables below.

This page reports the results of the 18 students who took the test on April 19 (the codes for these students starts with "A" or "B").

The results are reported in three tables below. The first table is organized by student code. The first column lists the code of each student. Following this are columns, one for each question on the test; the answer picked by each student for that question is listed; the answer is in boldface if it is correct. The last column is a summary column that specifies the percentage of questions that each student answered correctly.

CodeQ1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Q11Q12Q13Q14Q15Q16Q17Q18Q19Q20Q21Q22Q23Q24% correct
Courses625, ...680601541560222, ...366, ...625625655660660675221, ...670670680680680560581630616551
AAaacabecbcbbabdcfebabebgh 52
ABdaccbeabdbafbbabebfdbfgc 40
ACcacadabacbcabdabebffbfbc 65
ADcaeabacdcbbaadabdcabhdgc 52
AEaacadacdcbcabdagcaebbdbg 78
AFaaeadadccbcabdaecbfbgagg 71
AGcacabeedcbbecdbgefafhfbh 39
AHaacedaddcbcecdcdaaebeagg 59
AIdecabaddcbcdccacebebbfbg 59
AJaebcbfadcbcecdaccaebhfdg 50
AKaecaaaeccbcfbdacceabbbgg 63
ALaaeadaedcbdabdbgcaabhdgc 60
AMaaccbacdcbcfcdaecbfbfbcg 65
ANaecabeddcbbaedacebebcbgc 60
APdacebfddcbcgccabebebgbgb 50
AQdeedbabbcbbebadfdaeaeceg 26
ARaacabaddcbcabdadcaebfagc 86
ASaceabfedcbbebdacdbebefgg 47
AXfafaddeddbccedbeeffbbedf 37
AYaaccbaddcbbabdagcbfbedgg 72
BBaaeadaddcbcgedaccafbgbgb 72

The next table is organized by question. For each question, the first row lists the course(s) most closely related to the question. The second row lists the program outcomes that the question corresponds to; the full set of program outcomes is available elsewhere. The next several rows list, for each possible answer for each question, the number of students who picked the particular answer. For each question, the number of students who picked the right answer is in boldface; note that for some questions, because of ambiguity in the question or due to other reasons, more than one answer may be considered correct and, in this case, each of the corresponding numbers is in boldface. The next row lists, for each question, the percentage of students who picked the correct answer for that question; or, in the case of questions that have more than one correct answer, picked any of the correct answers. Note also that in the case of some questions, one of the possible "answers" that a student could choose was along the lines of "I have not taken the course and have no idea". Students who picked such an answer were not counted in computing these percentages; the number of students who picked such an answer is listed in parentheses. The next row lists the percentage of students expected to answer this question correctly; this is a figure provided by the faculty member who designed the question, based on his or her experience with the course(s) in question. In those cases where the percentage of students answering a question is substantially different from the expected figure, especially if the problem seems to recur for similar questions over a number of offerings of POCAT, coordinator(s) for the course(s) and the faculty who regularly teach the course(s) will be expected to look into the problem and make any needed changes. The Undergraduate Studies Committee and the Curriculum Committee will coordinate these efforts.

QuestionQ1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Q11Q12Q13Q14Q15Q16Q17Q18Q19Q20Q21Q22Q23Q24
Courses625, ...680601541560222, ...366, ...625625655660660675221, ...670670680680680560581630616551
Outcomesa,c,e,l,ma,c,e,l,m,nfa,b,e,ma,b,e,k,l,na,b,k,maa,e,k,ma,k,ma,c,k,l,nc,k,lb,c,k,l,mb,c,k,l,ma,b,kb,k,ma,e,k,l,ma,b,e,k,l,ma,k,l,ma,k,mgkb,c,k,l,mc,d,e,k,m,na,k
a
13150141132100191115017510300
b
00101302302170111340100176642
c
311340042190121622691001116
d
40017181520110171230010420
e
056204500005300381905110
f
1 1 03     3 0 202722(6)01
g
0 0 00     2   4  0 (3)0(13)(10)
h
                                        4  02
% Correct617161666161387190100574252807194233338033405054
% Expected805070606070606060708060608050506080808060706070

The next table is organized by program outcome. For each outcome, the first row lists the numbers of the questions related to the outcome. The next row lists, for each outcome, the percentage of students who answered the questions related to the outcome, averaged over those questions. There is no "expected" row in this table. The Undergraduate Studies Committee will consider any corrective actions that may be needed based on the achievement figures in this table.

Outcome a b c e f g k l m n
Questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 16, 17, 23 3 20 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23 2, 5, 10, 23
Average Achievement % 58 57 59 53 61 80 54 51 52 70

Comments or questions about this page should be sent to neelam AT cse.ohio-state.edu