Abstract:

This work studies the impact of a strategy designed to help undergraduate students of the first two semesters at Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria de Ingeniería Campus Guanajuato of Instituto Politécnico Nacional of México to improve their grades on math courses. The strategy consisted on giving students an opportunity to replace the grade obtained in one of the three partial terms that, averaged, compose the final grade. Students had the opportunity to retake only one partial test which replaced the corresponding grade. The date of the new test was settled by the strategy coordinator on at most two weeks after they took the ordinary partial test.

The study is divided into two parts. In the first one, the data given by the grades with and without the recovery strategy are analyzed. Of the students taking the strategy, 42% improved their grades. Of the total number of students, 28% approved their respective courses, from them 15% was benefited by the strategy.

In the second one, the impact of the strategy is measured in terms of self-regulated learning using closed-ended questions. The questionnaire was applied to students that used and did not use the strategy on the previous semester. Among the students that took a recovery test, 78% declared that their study habits improved. This shows that the strategy might have a long-term impact on the students’ performance.

Keywords:

Self-regulation, Remedial strategy, exam conditions, math passing rate.