Dr' Mohammad H' Omar Department of Mathematical Sciences

1
The Effects of Promotion Exams in Preparatory
Year Program
on Students Performance in First Calculus Course
at University

• by
• Dr. Mohammad H. OmarDepartment of Mathematical
  Sciences
• King Fahd University of Petroleum Minerals
• July 1, 2006 2.00pm
• Presented at 3rd International Conference of the
  Teaching of Mathematics (ICTM), Wagner Room,
  Marmara Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey.

2
Brief overview of Talk

• Cited Strengths and Weaknesses of Educational
  Promotion
• Promotion Exams defined
• KFUPM preparatory year program
• The Study
• Research Design
• Analyses Design
• Analyses Results
• Conclusion Limitations

3
Cited Strengths and Weaknesses of Educational
Promotion
Advantage
Disadvantage
4
Promotion Exam according to the KFUPM
Undergraduate Bulletin (2003, p. 27)

• Definition
• Promotion Exams
• "are examinations held at the University for
  students
• who achieve outstanding results in the admission
  exam
• or
• at the end of their first preparatory year
  semester,
• for exemption from the preparatory year courses
• students can also be promoted for English
  courses by having acceptable good points in TOEFL

5
KFUPM preparatory year program

• King Fahd University of Petroleum Minerals is
• an English Medium Engineering Science all male
  University
• The preparatory year program
• is a two-semester mandatory program prior to
  Formal University Enrolment for Saudi Arabian
  students
• mainly consists of an intensive English language
  program and a review of some basic high school
  mathematics namely algebra and trigonometry
• main purpose is to provide a smooth transition
  for native speaking arabic from arabic medium
  high school to english medium University
• Is promotion beneficial for these beginning
  bilingual students?

6
The Study

• not much is known about the effects of promotion
  at the college level,
• especially in preparatory programs that serve as
  an English language bridge to Arabic speaking
  student cohort.
• This study is aimed at providing some insights in
  this direction.
• The study investigates
• the effect of the program, in general,
• and
• promotion exams, in particular, to the student
  performance in first Calculus course at KFUPM.

7
Research Design

• The data for this study was collected
  longitudinally
• from the Fall 2002 to the Fall 2004
• All students
• who went through orientation program at KFUPM
• and those who obtained exemption partially or
  fully by taking promotion tests
• and progressed through Calculus I
• comprised the data for this study
• 2678 total number of students

8
Analyses Design

• Analyses variables
• Academic Term (21,22,23,31,32,33,41)
• How many Repeats (no repeat, one, twice, thrice)
• Grades for Preparatory year courses
• (ENGL 001, ENGL 002, MATH 001, MATH 002)
• Promotion status for Preparatory year Courses
  (0not promoted, 1promoted)
• Calculus I grades
• Grading system for courses
• Failing grades WF (Withdraw-Fail), F (Fail), DN
  (Denial for excessive absence)
• Passing grades D, D, C, C, B, B, A, A
• Promoted grade NP (No grade - Pass)
• Ordinal Logistic Regression
• Search for meaning of NP grade for
• English 1
• English 2
• MATH 1
• MATH 2
• Search for best overall model for predicting
  calculus I grades

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Table 1. Number of Students promoted for each
academic term
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Table 2. The likely numerical values of NP for
different preparatory year English subjects
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Table 2 (cont.) The likely numerical values of NP
for different preparatory year Math subjects
12
Table 3. Effect of other variables in the study
13
Table 4. Selection of the Best Model
14
Table 5. The Best Model
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Table 5 cont. The Best Model
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Conclusion and Limitations

• Conclusion
• promotion exams have mainly statistically
  significant effects for all students
• On the practical bases (with percent concordant),
• promotion exams have the same effects for the
  larger group of students
• but more substantial effects for the few promoted
  students
• The most important effects appear to be the
  mathematics courses themselves followed by
  Semester and the English courses
• Promotion grade, NP, effectively function as
  equivalence of
• A in the mathematics courses MATH 001 and MATH
  002,
• C in English 1 and
• B in English 2.

• Limitations
• Study only look at quantitative variables. If
  other variables such as qualitative variables are
  examined, a different result might be observed
• KFUPM is a male only university. The results may
  not hold for other universities with different
  make-up of the student body

17
Thank You
Thank You