|
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
|
| 