IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mts/jrnlee/v15y2015i1p19-36.html

The Impact of Question Order on Multiple Choice Exams on Student Performance in an Unconventional Introductory Economics Course

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Kagundu
  • Glenwood Ross

Abstract

We investigate the effect of question order on multiple-choice exams on students’ performance in an unconventional introductory economics course. The course is an introduction to the global economy and comprises elements of principles of economics, introductory international trade and introductory international finance. The tests in two sections of the course were administered in four versions. On one of the versions, multiple-choice questions are ordered according to the order in which course material was offered, while questions on the other versions are randomly scrambled. Our empirical analysis reveals no statistically significant effect of question order on students’ grades.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Kagundu & Glenwood Ross, 2015. "The Impact of Question Order on Multiple Choice Exams on Student Performance in an Unconventional Introductory Economics Course," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center, vol. 15(1), pages 19-36, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:mts:jrnlee:v:15:y:2015:i:1:p:19-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://capone.mtsu.edu/jee/2015/pp19-36MS1012.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Della L. Sue, 2009. "The Effect Of Scrambling Test Questions On Student Performance In A Small Class Setting," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center, vol. 9(1), pages 32-41, Summer.
    2. David Romer, 1993. "Do Students Go to Class? Should They?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 167-174, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Morgan Raux & Marc Sangnier & Tanguy van Ypersele, 2017. "Scrambled questions penalty in multiple choice tests: New evidence from French undergraduate students," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(1), pages 347-351.
    2. Steven B. Caudill & Franklin G. Mixon, 2023. "Guess for Success? Application of a Mixture Model to Test-Wiseness on Multiple-Choice Exams," Stats, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-6, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel R. Marburger, 2001. "Absenteeism and Undergraduate Exam Performance," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 99-109, January.
    2. Carlos J. Asarta & James R. Schmidt, 2013. "Student Choices of Reduced Seat Time in a Blended Introductory Statistics Course," Working Papers 13-14, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    3. Mushay A. Ogundipe & Olufemi A. Falade, 2014. "Student-Teacher Perception of Time Allocation and Academic Achievement in Tai Solarin University of Education," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 4(1), pages 65-70, March.
    4. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Bauer, Thomas K., 1998. "Learning Efficiency of Economics Students," IZA Discussion Papers 23, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Dey, Ishita, 2018. "Class attendance and academic performance: A subgroup analysis," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 29-40.
    6. Hans Bonesrønning & Leiv Opstad, 2012. "How Much is Students' College Performance Affected by Quantity of Study?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 11(2), pages 46-63.
    7. Göke, Michael, 2008. "Homo oeconomicus im Hörsaal: Die Rationalität studentischer Nebengespräche in Lehrveranstaltungen," Arbeitspapiere der FOM 9, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management.
    8. Gervas Huxley & Mike Peacey, 2014. "A Simple Model of Learning Styles," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/322, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    9. Meng,Christoph & Heijke,Hans, 2005. "Student time allocation, the learning environment and the acquisition of competencies," ROA Research Memorandum 001, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    10. Olufolakemi Afrogha & Femi Oladele & Olatunde Wright, 2020. "Influencing Factors On Academic Performance In Bowen University: The Perceptions Of Accounting Undergraduate Students," International Journal of Contemporary Accounting Issues-IJCAI (formerly International Journal of Accounting & Finance IJAF), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), vol. 9(2), pages 120-140.
    11. Gervas Huxley & Mike W. Peacey, 2016. "Self-control at College," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 16/675, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    12. Devadoss, Stephen & Foltz, John, 1995. "Evaluation Of Factors Influencing Student Class Attendance And Performance," A.E. Research Series 305136, University of Idaho, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.
    13. Hazra, Ummaha & Priyo, Asad Karim Khan, 2022. "Unethical practices in online classes during COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of affordances using routine activity theory," MPRA Paper 117853, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. James Andreoni & Andy Brownback, 2014. "Grading on a Curve, and other Effects of Group Size on All-Pay Auctions," NBER Working Papers 20184, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Christopher N. Annala & Shuo Chen & Daniel R. Strang, . "The Use of PRS in Introductory Microeconomics: Some Evidence on Performance and Attendance," Journal for Economic Educators, Middle Tennessee State University, Business and Economic Research Center.
    16. Arulampalam, Wiji & Naylor, Robin A. & Smith, Jeremy, 2012. "Am I missing something? The effects of absence from class on student performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 363-375.
    17. Cuffe, Harold E. & Waddell, Glen R. & Bignell, Wesley, 2014. "Too Busy for School? The Effect of Athletic Participation on Absenteeism," IZA Discussion Papers 8426, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Cortinhas, Carlos, 2025. "Does nudging higher education students improve attendance and does it matter? A quasi-natural experiment," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    19. Mause Karsten, 2008. "Ist Bildung eine Ware? Ein Klärungsversuch / Is Education a Market Good? An Attempt to Clarify," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 59(1), pages 363-380, January.
    20. Randall Krieg & Bulent Uyar, 1997. "Correlates of student performance in Business and Economics Statistics," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 21(3), pages 65-74, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:mts:jrnlee:v:15:y:2015:i:1:p:19-36. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Michael Roach (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efmtsus.html .

    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.