Grades of the Economics Program

This page will publish a brief statistical analysis of the student’s grades in the Economics Program after each assessment element.

Midterm grades (1st semester, 2023-24)

Students	mean	min	median	max	std
65	14.6	7.0	14.8	19.5	2.39

The grades are excellent, not only in terms of mean (14.6) and standard deviation (2.39) but also in their distribution, which moves along its quartiles as a shaped curve with a negative skew (median>mean), indicating that the most frequent grades are high.
The answers clearly show no outliers regarding intrinsic difficulties or interpretational problems: only two questions had a ratio of corrected answers less than 50% of the total number of responses. And we should add that one of them was easy to answer. At the same time, the second one was part of the exercises discussed in classes (it demanded some thinking regarding the concepts involved, but nothing very complicated).
From the 64 tests (valid) submitted, only 2 tests got less than 10 points in total, while 1 test got less than 8 points.
We should also stress the 7 tests with grades between [17, 18] points, while 4 tests graded in the interval [18, 20] points.

Students enrolled in the course: 80
Students who have passed the course: 69
Students who passed using midterm and endterm tests: 62
Students who passed using the final exam: 7
Of all the students who completed at least one assessment (tests, and/or final exam), only 2 failed.

variable	mean	min	median	max	standard dev.
Students passed	14.6812	10	15.0	20	2.77
Midterm test	15.677	8.4	15.87	20	2.56
Endterm test	13.832	1.75	14.25	19.3	3.56

It’s worth pointing out the noticeable reduction in grades from the midterm to the endterm test (with the mean dropping by 1.85 points out of 20), which is easily visible in the cross-plot, where most grades are above the 45º line.
The distribution of the final grades (as shown in the first histogram above) is a little strange. Usually, these grades are distributed differently. For example, take the case of a course very similar to this one here, also taught this semester and with a similar syllabus and assessments. This unusual distribution of the final grades results from the sharp reduction in the marks in the endterm test.
35 students scored in the [15, 20] range. In other words, 49.3% of the students (who attended both tests or the final exam) obtained marks in the two highest quartiles.
13 students scored in the [18, 20] range, i.e., around 18.3% of the students (who sat the two tests or the final exam) obtained grades associated with performance that is normally regarded as exceptional. This point is hugely positive.
The number of failures is extremely low (concerning the students who attended the two tests or the final exam): only 2 students failed.