Abstract

In Math 112 at BYU, exams play a crucial role in evaluating students' understanding of the course content. Traditionally, these exams are a combination of multiple-choice and free-response questions, with the latter serving as a means to assess a student's thought process while solving problems. Will students perform as well on a multiple-choice exam? Or will students' averages be higher on free-response exams? In this thesis, we test 7 hypotheses related to these questions to provide more insight into the answer. We examine other factors that may affect students' averages, including various Calculus 1 topics, modes of questioning, and difficulty levels. By applying a mixed-effect model to the Math 112 exam scores from the past five years, we find evidence that the format of exam questions impacts students' averages. The results indicate that this difference is significant. We discuss the analysis and possible reasons why other results are not significant.

Degree

College and Department

Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences; Mathematics

Rights

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