Evaluating the Impact of Individual Student Exam Performance on Overall Cohort Exam Performance

Introduction: Student performance has been documented to be dependent on size, socioeconomic status, and attendance, yet not on other classmates’ performance. This study seeks to determine if the class performance affects individual academic achievement.

Methods: A retrospective review of EMT student data in Fisdap analyzed EMT Entrance Assessment (EMTEA) and EMT Readiness Exam (ERE2 or ERE4) results to classify students based on exam performance. Scores from 164 students from December 2017 to September 2018 were analyzed from 13 student cohorts ranging from 4 to 57 students. To determine the “cohort effect,” the student’s ability (EMTEA score) and the cohort’s ability (mean cohort score) were measured. Student performance was divided into four student-groups. Cohort performance was divided into three cohort-groups. ANOVA was calculated with the dependent variable of difference score and two factors: student-group and cohort-group.

Results: The main effect of cohort-group wasn’t statistically significant (F[3,145]=2.5, p=0.088). The ability of the cohort didn’t have a significant effect on ERE scores. The main effect of student-group was statistically significant (F[3,145]=53, p<0.001). Most interesting is the lack of an interaction effect (F[5,145]=0.9, p=0.47). Students in a given student-group did not have a significant difference in performance based on cohort-group.

Conclusions: There was no significant difference in students’ performance when compared to classmates’ performance. Students who scored lowest initially showed the most improvement, independent of the cohort. Students who scored highest initially showed the least improvement, again independent of cohort.