Results of POCAT, Winter 2008

Note: Thirty seven students took the POCAT in Winter '08. There were 18 questions in the test, 17 of which were based on the required courses, the 18th was based on CSE 630. For the question based on CSE 630, students who had not taken the course could choose answer (f) ["I have not taken the course and have no idea (what the correct answer is)"]. 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.

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 last column is a summary column that specifies the percentage of questions that each student answered correctly.

CodeQ1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Q11Q12Q13Q14Q15Q16Q17Q18% correct
AAdabafcdcaadcdaaebf 52
ABacbcdcdcddcbdabedf 41
ACaebafbdcaacbffbcdd 66
ADacbadddcaacaeafcbb 55
AEaabafddcaacadfecbf 76
AFaabafdccaacbdffddb 66
AGaabafedceacbeefebf 58
AHaacdbddeaaeadafcfg 44
AIdabddddaaacbdfeedf 52
AJaabcfddeaecbdadecb 66
AKacbafddceecafffcdd 55
ALaabadddcadcbdedccf 82
AMccbcfeacaacadafebb 38
ANcbbafddadacbdfcade 50
APaabcdbdcaacbdaeccd 72
AQaabadddcdacadaeccf 70
ARcabadddcdacbeedcbf 64
ASaabadddcaacbdedcdd 83
ATaaaaddddaddadaaebe 38
AUecbadddcaecadefccg 55
AVfabedddcaacbbdeccd 66
AWacbaaddcaebaeacfdf 41
AXaabafddcadcbdeccbd 77
AYdabcfaccaacaeadcbb 50
AZaabafddcaacafbccbd 77
BAebbafeddaddbebaecf 47
BBeaaafadbdddacecccf 35
BCaabafcdcaacadafcbd 72
BDdabafdccaacbbacedd 61
BEacbadddcaacbdeeccg 72
BFdabadbdcaecbdecdbb 50
BGeebadddcaacbcbeccf 70
BHcabaddaddacadecccd 55
BIcabaeddcaacaeebcbg 55
BJgcbaacdceecbbeadef 35
BKaabadddcaacbdacccf 82
BLaabdfddcdacbdadccd 83

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.

QuestionQ1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9Q10Q11Q12Q13Q14Q15Q16Q17Q18
Courses625, etc.680601541560221, etc.625625655655660675660670670680680630
Outcomesa,c,ea,c,efa,b,ea,b,e,kc,e,ka,e,kka,ka,b,kc,kb,c,ka,b,c,kb,ka,e,ka,b,e,ka,kb,c,k
a
2125228222227250150154100
b
023401301001213330136
c
5815043290031120923130
d
50031625323764022163911
e
42 113 2361 7127912
f
1   17       36811(14)
g
1   0            4
h
                                   
% Correct56679175456786787267835659816623547
% Expected605060606070606060608080505050608070

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 k
Questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18 1, 2, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16 3 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Average Achievement % 58 52 62 59 91 55

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