How to Analyze a Computer Science Exam Result to Perform Better.

Once enrolled in computer science course the main aim is to be a performer and constantly improve your computer skills. Computer science truth be told is one of the most challenging courses and so are the exams a student is expected to undertake.

Exam results are helpful to students by enabling them to prepare to perform better in future tests. Students tend to focus more on what they scored once they get their results back. This is important since it helps them see whether their efforts paid off. To some extent though, it limits the student’s perspective on what the test intended to bring out. Hence an examiner should always be focused on making the students learn from a particular exam rather than focus only on the exam results or grade awarded.

What can students learn from a test rather than a grade?

Find out where the exam came from.

Students should be able to find out where the content required to tackle the exam came from. By focusing on this aspect students identify whether the information was taught in class by the teacher, gotten from the available library materials, or was from multiple sources combined. With this information, a candidate is better prepared to tackle the coming texts.

After identifying the source where the questions were gotten from or the format used. A student should then focus on developing ways they would have employed to pass the test. They should identify whether they had the information that the exam tested and if yes, did they use the information appropriately. This would form a basis to help in passing future exams. The grade gotten should also help the students identify the errors made when answering the questions for instance in computer science if the subject says is on the basics of programming a student should be able to use the required computer language when answering questions failure to which the student may get the answers wrong. By identifying the errors, the student can prepare better for the next test.

Conduct a post-exam survey.

The candidate should also be able to do a post-exam survey after undertaking and getting the results of a computer science exam. A post-exam survey is designed to help the candidate evaluate the previous exam, the results scored, and help prepare for future tests. The survey is usually presented in prose form

A post-exam survey for a computer science exam may include:

How much time was spent preparing for the exam? A computer science student has strong and weak subjects for instance if a student is weak in a subject say coding, more time should be allocated to the same to improve performance.

A student should also have a checklist. This should be able to show how well the candidate distributed his/her time in performing activities aimed at preparing for the exam. Does the checklist entail questions?

• How much time was taken in reading a new concept for the first time?
• How much time was taken to re-read the new idea from the textbook?
• Was the assignment given in class done and revised?
• Did the student take enough time practicing for the test?
• Were the notes written in class reviewed?

After reviewing how well the student was prepared for the computer exam, the next step is to identify how many points or marks were lost that could be avoided. These could range having difficulties with compilers and operating systems, mathematical errors when dealing with topics like mathematical and logical foundations of computer science, failure to understand some concepts in computer science in units like object-oriented programming or say algorithms and data structures, and careless mistake say for instance when coding. Once these issues that affected the final grade in the computer science exam are identified, the student should come up with measures to ensure that marks aren’t lost the same way in future tests. These may include sharpening their mathematics skills so that the units in computer science that require mathematics aren’t compromised, and practicing coding more often say weekly to eradicate careless mistakes when taking programming exams.

Analyze techniques used to study for the exam.

The student also needs to analyze how they studied for the exam. Upon getting their results in computer science, the candidate should evaluate the methods they used to revise. Based on the results obtained, the student can then determine where to improve when preparing for the coming tests. The prior study methods need to be critically evaluated based on those that yielded results and those that didn't. For instance, if the student realizes that they did more studying on their own, then they can opt to join with course mates and study in groups. This helps the student to improve on their weak areas by being helped by friends.

The learner also among other things identifies which part of the exam was the easiest and which part of the exam was the hardest. This can be traced to the parts of the computer science course they had prepared thoroughly for and the parts the student hadn’t adequately prepared for.

The student also should examine how many hours they had spared in preparing for the exam. This can be measured by the number of hours used by the student in learning a new programming language for example python says in preparation for a coding exam. This is important since it helps boost candidate morale when handling a computer exam hence translating to better grades.

With the exam results and a student's ability to scrutinize how they had prepared for it; they can predict the possible questions that the coming tests are likely to tackle. They are also able to devise new and enhanced ways to better prepare for future exams.

From the exam results received, the student should identify the problems they had with the past exam. The student should also evaluate keenly the specific problems they faced during the exam that resulted in them scoring poorly in the exams. For a computer science test, a student may experience several problems. In some cases, insufficient information where a student may realize they had studied and grasped the required concept but in the exam room they couldn’t remember the same or the learner may also be familiar with the concept being tested but they could not apply the concept in the test. The student can also experience text anxiety during a computer exam. This can be demonstrated by a student panicking and experiencing a mental block. A student may also lack test wisdom during the exam exhibited by marking the wrong choices or not eliminating grammatically incorrect choices. A student may also have test skills problems during an exam.

Once a student identifies the problems or weakness they had in the exam room, they can prepare better for the future test by ensuring that the challenges they experienced are not repeated.

In conclusion, analyzing the exam results from a computer science test helps the student to better prepare for future tests. With the help of the steps well discussed in this blog, a student should be in a position to analyze the results of a computer exam to enable them to perform better in the subsequent tests.