Importance of early performance in CS1
Leo Porter, Daniel Zingaro · 2014
It is generally assumed that early success in CS1 is crucial for success on the exam and course as a whole. Particularities of students, densely-connected CS1 content, and recurring core topics each suggest that it is difficult to rebound from early misunderstandings. In this paper, we use Peer Instruction (PI) data, in addition to exam data, to explore relationships between in-class assessments and performance at the end of term and on the exam. We find that early course performance very quickly and strongly predicts performance on the final exam and that subsequent weeks provide no major increase in that predictive power. In contrast, early performance is similarly predictive of performance in the last weeks of PI questions, but subsequent weeks are increasingly more predictive. We speculate on what this means for the content of these assessments and potential future assessment practices.