Using attainment curves and lead-times to help improve student examination performance

ABSTRACT

Although alternatives exist, unseen, written examinations still appear to be a major component of assessment in higher education in the UK. Such exams can be unsettling for students new to higher education, particularly for those with specific learning difficulties. The concept of an ‘attainment curve’ is developed to assist mark attribution and to help maximise attainment over the time needed to provide an answer. The idea of a ‘lead-time’ is proposed to help settle students before they start to write. This time can be used for planning and to apportion writing time in exams by way of appreciating the nature of attainment curves. This approach has cognitive benefits to procedures in general, such as fair mark apportioning and by informing procedures relating to students’ previous experiences. The analysis also considers ‘feedback’ and ‘rules of the game’ and also suggests how students might better tackle exam questions. Ways by which tutors might produce ‘student friendly’ examinations and be transparent over assessment procedures and mark gains are also indicated.

KEYWORDS:

• Attainment curves
• assessment
• learning difficulties
• lead-time
• question setting

Acknowledgments

Several topics touched upon here were mentioned in an Association for Learning Technology discussion list. I thank contributors, although I have not tried to answer specific points raised. I thank the late Dr Harry Avery of Stockport Grammar School for introducing me to the method of question selection presented in this paper. I also thank Professor Eric Charnov for discussion about OFT and reviewers for comments that helped improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

W. Brian Whalley

W. Brian Whalley is currently visiting Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield after retirement from Queen’s University of Belfast. At Queen’s he taught and researched in the School of Geoscience/Geography with special interest in high mountain glaciers. He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2008 and, with two other NTFs and colleagues at the universities of Reading and Chester, formed the Enhancing Fieldwork Learning group in 2010. This project was awarded a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.