Page 213 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 7

CPS2065 Lina Schelin et al.
2. The course
Here, the focus is on the first module of the introductory course Statistics
A1. This course is the single largest course at the department. It is taught four
times every year with 150, 70, 60 and 150 students respectively, and involves
more than 10 different teachers. The expected learning outcomes for the first
module of the course are:
• describe the basic statistical terminology that is relevant for each
respective module of the course
• apply statistical methods such as point estimation, confidence
interval and hypothesis testing
• based on a stated question and the scales of measures choose
an appropriate method of statistical analysis among those
presented in the course
• interpret derived statistical results and contextualize them

The core of every introductory statistics courses should be statistical thinking
and reasoning (Garfield, 2002). The expected learning outcomes were
constructed with this in mind. Further, the written exam is supposed to assess
these expected learning outcomes.

3. The written exam
The written exam on Statistics A1 is performed on paper, in an exam room,
during a maximum of four hours. The maximum score on the exam is 35 and
the students have to obtain a score of 21 to be awarded the grade Pass. A
score over 28 implies the grade Pass with distinction. Each task has a maximum
point and a student is usually awarded a point between 0 and the maximum
point, in increments of 0.5 or 1. A smaller part of the exam is related to
terminology, but most tasks are such that they focus on statistical thinking and
reasoning. For one example of a task, see Figure 1. The assessment teams are
expected to discuss and agree on a marking template before marking the
exams.

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