Time Spent in Examination Hall and Students’ Examination Scores: Analysis from a Technical Vocational Education and Training College in South Africa

Abstract

Examination is an assessment intended to measure student’s knowledge, skills and ability. Irrespective of the form of assessment administered to students to ascertain their performance, students are given a specific time to be spent in the examination hall. Students are highly unlikely to spend the same amount of time finishing their assessments and scoring the same point or mark after they have been assessed. There are some factors that influence student’s examination scores. These include the content of courses, strategies used in teaching, examination conditions and students’ preparation towards examinations. In this paper, the researchers sought to investigate the relationship between the duration students spend answering examination questions and their performance. A close-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from eighty students during their first semester examinations and analysis of their results was resorted to in collating the scores of the respondents of this study. Participants of this study were selected by means of simple random and accidental random techniques. The major findings of the study indicated that there were no significant mean differences in examination scores for early submitters (M=55.864, SD=20.387) and normal submitters [M=50.138, SD=13.712); t (78) =1.448, p =.152]. The study recommends that trainers and facilitators should encourage students to prepare well in advance before writing examinations.