A statistical analysis of examination performances: A case study of candidate performance at the IESL professional review examination

Abstract

The analysis of the examination performance of candidates provides knowledge of insight in the areas which require improvement both in the candidate capability in the areas tested and the examination itself. The candidates appearing for the professional review of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka had often shown concern with respect to the poor performance at one particular section of the review. In order to investigate the performance of candidates, in this study, a statistical analysis of the professional review examination pertaining to four consecutive examinations held over two years was carried out. The study results clearly indicate the rather poor performance in this particular section of the professional review thus suggesting a through evaluation of both the candidates and the examination to achieve improvements. Among the other findings the study shows that on the average, the candidates from the civil engineering discipline had not fared in this particular section as well as the candidates from the other engineering disciplines.