IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amerec/v68y2023i2p233-245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ChatGPT has Aced the Test of Understanding in College Economics: Now What?

Author

Listed:
  • Wayne Geerling
  • G. Dirk Mateer
  • Jadrian Wooten
  • Nikhil Damodaran

Abstract

The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) is a standardized test of economics knowledge performed in the United States which primarily targets principles-level understanding. We asked ChatGPT to complete the TUCE. ChatGPT ranked in the 91st percentile for Microeconomics and the 99th percentile for Macroeconomics when compared to students who take the TUCE exam at the end of their principles course. The results show that ChatGPT is capable of providing answers that exceed the mean responses of students across all institutions. The emergence of artificial intelligence presents a significant challenge to traditional assessment methods in higher education. An important implication of this finding is that educators will likely need to redesign their curriculum in at least one of the following three ways: reintroduce proctored, in-person assessments; augment learning with chatbots; and/or increase the prevalence of experiential learning projects that artificial intelligence struggles to replicate well.

Suggested Citation

  • Wayne Geerling & G. Dirk Mateer & Jadrian Wooten & Nikhil Damodaran, 2023. "ChatGPT has Aced the Test of Understanding in College Economics: Now What?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 68(2), pages 233-245, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:68:y:2023:i:2:p:233-245
    DOI: 10.1177/05694345231169654
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/05694345231169654
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/05694345231169654?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:68:y:2023:i:2:p:233-245. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/aex .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.