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research-article

The mystery of "b := (b = false)"

Published: 12 March 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes some unusual patterns that emerged from a statistical analysis of the 1988 Advanced Placement Exam in Computer Science. Most multiple-choice questions on the exam had few significant correlations with other parts of the exam. But a small set of five questions had a nontrivial correlation with many parts of the test. One question in particular demonstrated such correlations. It asked about the effect of the assignment statement "b := (b = false)" for a boolean variable b. One interpretation of this data is that these questions are testing general programming aptitude. The paper presents the analysis along with a discussion of the possible implications.

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Caspersen, M. E., Larsen, K. D., and Bennedsen, J. 2007. Mental models and programming aptitude. Proceedings of the 12th Annual SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.
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Dehnadi, S., and Bornat, R. 2006. The Camel Has Two Humps. Middlesex University Working Paper, www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
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Ma, L., Ferguson, J., Roper, M., and Wood, M. 2007. Investigating the viability of mental models held by novice programmers. Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.
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Simon, Fincher, S., Robbins, A., Baker, B., Box, I., Cutts, Q., De Raadt, M., Haden, P., Hamer, J., Hamilton, M., Lister, R., Petre, M., Sutton, K., Tolhurst, D., and Tutty, J. 2006. Predictors of success in a first programming course. Proceedings of the Eighth Australasian Computing Education Conference.

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  • (2014)Exploring variation in students' correct traces of linear recursionProceedings of the tenth annual conference on International computing education research10.1145/2632320.2632355(67-74)Online publication date: 28-Jul-2014
  • (2013)Leveraging online courses to increase student success in a Computer Science degreeProceedings of the 3rd Computer Science Education Research Conference on Computer Science Education Research10.5555/2541917.2541918(9-16)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2013
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Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 40, Issue 1
SIGCSE 08
March 2008
549 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1352322
Issue’s Table of Contents
  • cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
    March 2008
    606 pages
    ISBN:9781595937995
    DOI:10.1145/1352135
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 12 March 2008
Published in SIGCSE Volume 40, Issue 1

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Author Tags

  1. CS1
  2. CS2
  3. mental models

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Cited By

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  • (2015)Bats, Balls, and LuresProceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/2676723.2677291(447-451)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2015
  • (2014)Exploring variation in students' correct traces of linear recursionProceedings of the tenth annual conference on International computing education research10.1145/2632320.2632355(67-74)Online publication date: 28-Jul-2014
  • (2013)Leveraging online courses to increase student success in a Computer Science degreeProceedings of the 3rd Computer Science Education Research Conference on Computer Science Education Research10.5555/2541917.2541918(9-16)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2013
  • (2011)Integrating students' prior knowledge into pedagogyProceedings of the seventh international workshop on Computing education research10.1145/2016911.2016940(139-140)Online publication date: 8-Aug-2011
  • (2019)A Student's View of Concurrency - A Study of Common Mistakes in Introductory Courses on ConcurrencyProceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3291279.3339415(229-237)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2019
  • (2019)Schools (K–12)The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555.019(547-583)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
  • (2019)The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
  • (2016)Why Don't Some CS0 Students Succeed?Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education10.1145/2839509.2844667(317-318)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2016
  • (2015)Factors that predict success in CS1Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/2831432.283145831:2(165-171)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2015
  • (2015)Revisiting rainfall to explore exam questions and performance on CS1Proceedings of the 15th Koli Calling Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/2828959.2828970(40-49)Online publication date: 19-Nov-2015
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