Differences Between DSE and A-Level Students: Some Facts and Figures from an Elementary Statistic Subject for Science Students
It has been a controversy concerning whether there is any potential difference in the performances of students from the new and old secondary education systems when they are studying in a higher education institute. In order to investigate this issue, the results from the subject "Introduction to Probability and Statistics" for science students were analysed.
This subject is compulsory for all students studying AD Scheme in Science and Technology and they were admitted with A-Level qualification (AL) or HKDSE qualification (DSE) without Level 2 or above in HKDSE Extended Module 1 in Mathematics. Some relevant findings were discussed below.
The study was based on the subject's assessment results in semester two, including a total of about 500 Engineering and Science students splitting into five classes of similar sizes and they were taught by three different lecturers. The ratio of AL and DSE students was about 55% to 45%. The analyses were based on students' coursework marks (CA), exam marks (Exam), and the overall subject results (Subject GPA). Some of the findings were discussed below.
In general, AL students performed better in all the three components. Independent samples t-tests assuming unequal variances indicated that the differences in all the three components were very significant. Larger differences were observed in Exam than in CA. The average CA and exam marks for the AL students were higher than those for the DSE students for about 5.7% and 12.6% respectively. Regarding the Subject GPA, the difference was as large as 0.64 representing the AL students in general could obtain about one subject grade better than the DSE students.
Regarding the potential effect of different lecturers on students, analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The results showed that for the students taught by different lecturers, there was no significant difference in their performances in any of the three components. The same analyses were also performed to investigate the potential differences among students from different programs. The results were also negative indicating there was no significant difference among the performances of students from Engineering and Science.
Based on the above simple statistical analysis, students with AL and DSE qualifications do have different academic performances disregarding the effect of the lecturers and the programs they are studying. It is believed that the difference is particularly obvious in the elementary science subjects due to the relatively large differences between AL and DSE students in the relevant science knowledge acquired in the two different secondary education systems.