Chapter 12, Problem 2T

Cheaters Never Learn The table here shows the results of an educational study of university physics students, comparing exam scores with students' rates of copying others’ homework. The numbers in the table approximate letter grades on a 4-point scale (4.0 is an A, 3.0 is a B, and so on). Answer the questions in terms of copy rate.

CopyRate	Pretest	Exam1	Exam2	Exam3	FinalExam
<10%	2.70	2.75	2.90	2.80	2.95
10% to 30%	2.50	2.45	2.35	2.40	2.30
30% to 50%	2.45	2.43	2.30	2.10	2.00
>50%	2.40	2.05	1.70	1.80	1.60
Source: Table created using data from research reported in Physics Review-Special Topics-Physics Education by David J. Palazzo, Young-Jin Lee, Rasil Warnakulasooriya, and David E. Pritchard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physics faculty.

Source: Table created using data from research reported in Physics Review-Special Topics-Physics Education by David J. Palazzo, Young-Jin Lee, Rasil Warnakulasooriya, and David E. Pritchard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physics faculty.

(a) Which students generally improved their exam performance over the course of the semester?

(b) Which students did better on exam 3 than on exam 2?

(c) Which students had lower scores consistently from one exam to the next throughout the semester?

(d) Do you think that copying homework is generally a cause of lower exam scores? Explain.