Assessing Assessment: The Effects of Two Exam Formats on Course Achievement and Evaluation

This research examines the effect of two testing strategies on academic achievement and summative evaluations in an introductory statistics course. In 2001, 63 students underwent an hourly midterm format; and in 2002, 68 students underwent a bi-weekly exam format. Other than the exam format, the class lectures and labs were identical in terms of content, structure, pace, and the cumulative final exam. Findings from the regression analyses show that students in the bi-weekly format performed better than the students in the hourly midterm format. On average, students who took the bi-weekly exams performed about 10 percentage points higher (one letter grade) on the exams during the semester and about 15 percentage points higher on the cumulative final exam compared to their peers who took hourly midterms. The benefits of the bi-weekly format were significantly greater among female students than male students. Finally, students in the bi-weekly format were less likely to drop the class and evaluated the class far more favorably. Carrie B. Myers is an Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education at Montana State University. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Washington State University. Her research focuses on student and faculty development and assessment and evaluation. Scott M. Myers is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Montana State University. His areas of research are family demography and education. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Demography from the Pennsylvania State University.