FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS AND INTEGRATION: COMPULSORY VERSUS NON-COMPULSORY EXAM QUESTIONS

In first-year engineering mathematics programmes in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) a common observation was the avoidance of certain topics by students in the end-of-semester examination papers. In particular the subject of integration was found challenging by many students and consequently they would avoid this altogether. Due to an element of choice on the examination paper they could do this and still perform well. For many this would cause problems in succeeding years in further courses in integration and also in other areas such as differential equations. This observation is borne out by the fact that the most common problem for which engineering students sought help in the Students’ Maths Learning Centre last year was basic integration, with 56% coming from second or third year. A survey conducted in the faculty of engineering of 260 students found that around 50% felt that there should be compulsory questions on integration and differentiation in order to discourage them from skipping such topics.
This was the approach adopted for the first year building services engineers from 2007 onwards, namely a compulsory question on integration and differentiation was introduced on their end-of-semester examination. This study measures the effects of this on student performance compared with earlier exam results with no such compulsory question.