Presenter:
Jeffrey J. McMillan, Clemson University
Description:
In a "perfect world," performance on examinations should be related to a student's understanding and mastery of the subject matter and not to differences in exam design or personal/environmental factors. Most educators have some superficial or "gut" feelings about how students respond differently to different types of questions (i.e., conceptual versus numerical multiple choice, short- or long-answer problem, essay, etc. …). In addition, on most campuses a good case can be made that the student composition of accounting principles courses presents faculty with more variation in demographic characteristics such as major, classification level, and gender than most any other course on campus. This claim is most definitely true regarding all other accounting courses.
In order to produce a deeper understanding of how exam performance may be affected by the design/format of the exam questions employed and by differing student characteristics common in accounting principles classes, a through review and analysis of over 500 accounting principles exams was conducted. The information provided should not only help those that teach accounting principles, but also help all accounting educators build better examinations.
