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

Introduction: Socioeconomic status, class size, and attendance are known to affect student performance, but it is not yet known if the performance of the class as a whole affects learner success. 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) scores to evaluate changes from EMTEA to ERE when compared to classmates’ 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 as measured by the EMTEA score and the cohort’s ability (mean cohort score) were measured. ANOVA was calculated with the dependent variable of difference score for both student and cohort groups.

Results: The ability level of the cohort did not have a statistically significant effect on the individual ERE scores (F[3,145]=2.5, p=0.088). Students who were low-performing did not get a boost by being in the high-performing cohort (F[5,145]=0.9, p=0.47).

Conclusion: There is no significant difference in EMT 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.