Are resits a good idea?

Last year, Tilburg Professor Peter Kooreman published an article in which he concludes that the possibility of a resit exams increases the likelihood of ultimate success, but at the same time greatly reduces the average performance of students. His conclusions, however, were based on a mathematical model of a “rational student”, rather than empirical data.

This may sound logical, explains Mark Nieuwenstein of the Experimental Psychology group in Groningen, but humans don’t generally behave rationally when it comes to risks and benefits. For this reason, a new PhD project starting in September 2014 under his supervision will investigate how the presence of resits affects learning for exams.

NOTE: Image by Alberto G., licensed under CC BY 2.0