samlet årgang - Økonomisk Institut - Københavns Universitet

WHAT AFFECTS STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE? 363
registration numbers (cpr.nr.). Based on this database, we collected data on grades
from the following 11 courses: 10
111: The Company in an International Setting
112: Microeconomics
114E: International Business Environment
122E: Macroeconomics
123: Intercultural Communication
131: International Economics
132E: Principles of Marketing
212E: Management Information Systems (MIS)
222: Corporate Finance
234: Statistics for Business
241: International Business law
For 1 st year courses the number of observations (grades per course) ranges from 72
to 146, indicating that while in some courses students get pre-approval from having
studied similar courses previously, in other courses extra students attend first-year
exams (second year students who want to improve their grades). 11 For 2 nd year courses
the number of observations ranges from 32 to 51, indicating in turn that many students
have postponed taking the exam.
It should be noted that due to the B.Sc. IB’s intense quarter structure, it is customary
for the students to hand-in a blank answer just in order to get permission to a re-take
exam (as it is required by the rules and regulations). 12 However, given the fact that
a blank answer was (until mid 2004) awarded the grade, »0« we have chosen to
abstract from observations with grade »0«. 13 The total number of students (i.e. cpr.
numbers) in our data set is 156. However, not all 156 students took the same courses,
as some of them may have had credit transfers from a previous education. Thus, for a
single course the maximum number of students is 146.
Moving to what determines a student’s grade, we focus on admission characteristics.
More generally, however, a student’s grade is a function of his or her: (i) intellectual
10. The first number in the code indicates the year the course is taught, while the »E« code denotes written
exam, indicating that the course has other forms of evaluations too, e.g. a project.
11. Note that the first year has to be passed with an average of at least 6, and not have any »0« entries, in
order to be allowed to take second year exams.
12. Each semester has two 7-week quarters. At the end of each quarter there is a week of exams. Two courses
are taught intensively in each quarter. Responding to this exam pressure, students tend to postpone the
exam by handing-in blank answers.
13.Clearly this may bias upwards the performance averages.