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The achieved weights of examination components
Abstract
Every examination may be regarded as being made up of a number of components. These components may be individual questions or items, parts of questions, individual papers or even assessments other than written examination papers (for example coursework or projects).
In most educational examinations the final marks are simply the aggregate of the component marks. These final marks are used to determine an overall rank order of candidates and in many cases the grades which are awarded to the candidates.
All of the components will contribute in some way to the final results of an examination, but rarely will they all contribute to the same extent. The relative degree to which a component contributes to the final results of an examination is referred to as its achieved weight in that examination. A number of ways of measuring component weights have been proposed: these are briefly reviewed here.
How to cite
Adams, R. and Murphy, R. (1982). The achieved weights of examination components, Educational Studies, Vol. 8, Iss. 1.Keywords
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