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Questions about College Algebra
Appendix A: Comparison of success of College Algebra
sections taught in different formats
Each chapter’s data consists of two tables. The first
shows the number of times each section ranked first, second or third
for a particular objective, as measured by the number of students who
got questions correct for each objective that was tested. The
second averages each section’s performance on all the common
objectives. The sections of College Algebra are labeled as
follows:
Section A: Met 3 days per week and had an Explorations
Laboratory.
Section B: Met 5 days per week.
Section C: Met 3 days per week.
A “first” for a section indicates that that section performed
best on a given question, e.g. they had the highest percentage of
correct answers. A “second” indicates that a section had the
second highest percentage of correct answers for a question, and so on.
Chapter 1
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
2
|
7
|
9
|
|
Section B
|
12
|
2
|
4
|
|
Section C
|
4
|
10
|
4
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
44
|
|
Section B
|
56
|
|
Section C
|
49
|
|
All Sections
|
50
|
Chapter 2
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
2
|
8
|
3
|
|
Section B
|
8
|
1
|
4
|
|
Section C
|
5
|
2
|
6
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
62
|
|
Section B
|
68
|
|
Section C
|
65
|
|
All Sections
|
65
|
Chapter 3
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
1
|
10
|
2
|
|
Section B
|
9
|
2
|
2
|
|
Section C
|
5
|
0
|
8
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
53
|
|
Section B
|
65
|
|
Section C
|
53
|
|
All Sections
|
57
|
Chapter 4
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
5
|
4
|
0
|
|
Section B
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
|
Section C
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
51
|
|
Section B
|
37
|
|
Section C
|
40
|
|
All Sections
|
43
|
Chapter 5
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
|
Section B
|
6
|
3
|
1
|
|
Section C
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
58
|
|
Section B
|
67
|
|
Section C
|
61
|
|
All Sections
|
62
|
Chapter 6
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
|
Section B
|
5
|
4
|
1
|
|
Section C
|
4
|
2
|
4
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
65
|
|
Section B
|
72
|
|
Section C
|
71
|
|
All Sections
|
69
|
Chapter 7
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
0
|
4
|
6
|
|
Section B
|
7
|
1
|
2
|
|
Section C
|
4
|
5
|
1
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
69
|
|
Section B
|
79
|
|
Section C
|
78
|
|
All Sections
|
75
|
Note that the final exam was a 40 question, multiple-choice
exam. We see that Section A had the highest percentage of correct
answers on 22 of 40 questions.
Final Exam
|
Section/Rank
|
Firsts
|
Seconds
|
Thirds
|
|
Section A
|
22
|
12
|
6
|
|
Section B
|
13
|
13
|
14
|
|
Section C
|
16
|
16
|
8
|
|
Section
|
Average Percent Correct
|
|
Section A
|
54
|
|
Section B
|
49
|
|
Section C
|
53
|
|
All Sections
|
52
|
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