During the autumn, after the exam results have been published, examination boards analyse the performance of their examination papers. This includes analysis of the marks gained by students on each question. They are hoping to find that questions were accessible and showed good discrimination. Box 1 shows an example of how the analysis might be presented, and how it would be used to judge the performance of one question.
When doing this analysis, I used to dread finding a high percentage value for the ‘question not attempted’ category. What caused me further dismay was how often this related to a question involving mathematical skills. Even worse was finding examination scripts in which every mathematical question had been left blank.
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