If you’re a college student and you’re reading my blog right now, here’s something for you to think about: How important is it, really, to do well on the first test in a course?
You can always go back and catch up on the beginning stuff any time during the semester- and a semester is a long time. Also, there are usually several other grades that can pull up a bad first test. So how bad can bombing the first test possibly be?
Here’s a chart showing a comparison between students’ grades on their first test and their final course grades. There are about 90 students plotted. Students who withdrew from the course were not included since they had no final course grade to plot.
![[Final grades vs. Test 1 grades, 450px]](http://whenchemistsattack.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/grades_vs_first_test_450.jpg)
The yellow box shows all students who both “bombed” their first test with a score of 60 or below and brought their grade back up to make at lease a “C” in the course. Notice how few students appear in that box: three.
So yes, it is pretty important to do well on the first test. Passing the first test doesn’t guarantee success in a course, but failing it almost always leads to failing the course. Think about that before you head out to another late-night party the night before your test!
there’s fun in giving someone a head start in a race, you know.
Love the graph! Interesting conclusion – many students do think they can still pass a course after a failing grade. One question – is the final grade a true average or is it some kind of calculation that drops that worst test grade?
I think part of the reason that these students who bomb the first test don;t go on to pass the course is the nature of the course itself. The concepts in the first few weeks of the course are used constantly in the later parts of the course. Students who don’t have a firm grasp of these initial concepts get blown away by the material in the later weeks.
To get an average at the end of the course, I usually replace my students lowest test grade with their final exam grade, provided that they have not missed one of the tests. (This lets me avoid much of the hell of scheduling makeup tests – if a student can’t make up a test within a day or so, their final counts in the place of the missed test.)
Does replacing a test with the final inflate the grades? From looking at my grade books over the years, it doesn’t have much of an effect at all on actual numbers. Usually, the final exam is a either a student’s lowest grade or very close to it.