DISCUSSION

Panel I: All students in the task-based goals experiment
Total points score Pr(Grade ≥ A–) Pr(Grade ≥ B+)
OLS Median OLS OLS
Effect of asking students to set 0.743 0.924 ∗ 0.042 ∗ 0.043 ∗
task-based goals (0.474) (0.475) (0.022) (0.022)
[0.117] [0.052] [0.057] [0.052]
Effect / (SD in Control group) 0.068 0.085 0.086 0.087
Mean of dependent variable in Control group 83.111 83.111 0.393 0.493
Observations 2,004 2,004 2,004 2,004
Panel II: Male students in the task-based goals experiment
Total points score Pr(Grade ≥ A–) Pr(Grade ≥ B+)
OLS Median OLS OLS
Effect of asking students to set 1.581 ∗∗ 1.700 ∗∗ 0.093 ∗∗∗ 0.058 ∗
task-based goals (0.706) (0.674) (0.033) (0.033)
[0.025] [0.012] [0.005] [0.078]
Effect / (SD in Control group) 0.141 0.151 0.189 0.115
Mean of dependent variable in Control group 83.285 83.285 0.417 0.529
Observations 918 918 918 918
Panel III: Female students in the task-based goals experiment
Total points score Pr(Grade ≥ A–) Pr(Grade ≥ B+)
OLS Median OLS OLS
Effect of asking students to set 0.017 0.471 -0.003 0.030
task-based goals (0.637) (0.652) (0.029) (0.030)
[0.979] [0.470] [0.921] [0.320]
Effect / (SD in Control group) 0.002 0.045 -0.006 0.060
Mean of dependent variable in Control group 82.966 82.966 0.373 0.463
Observations 1,086 1,086 1,086 1,086
Notes: The regressions are the same as those reported in Table 6, except that we no longer include controls for
student characteristics. Heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors are shown in round brackets and two-sided
p-values are shown in square brackets.
∗ , ∗∗ and ∗∗∗ denote, respectively, significance at the 10%, 5% and 1%
levels (two-sided tests).
Table SWA.5: Effects of task-based goals on student performance without controls for student
characteristics
Supplementary Web Appendix, p. 4