Do Resit Exams Promote Lower Investments of Study Time? Theory and Data from a Laboratory Study

Abstract

Although many educational institutions allow students to resit exams, a recently proposed mathematical model suggests that this could lead to a dramatic reduction in study-time investment, especially in rational students. In the current study, we present a modification of this model in which we included some well-justified assumptions about learning and performance on multiple-choice tests, and we tested its predictions in two experiments in which participants were asked to invest fictional study time for a fictional exam. Consistent with our model, the prospect of a resit exam was found to promote lower investments of study time for a first exam and this effect was stronger for participants scoring higher on the cognitive reflection test. We also found that the negative effect of resit exams on study-time investment was attenuated when access to the resit was made uncertain by making it probabilistic or dependent on obtaining a minimal, non-passing grade for the first attempt. Taken together, these results suggest that offering students resit exams may compromise the achievement of learning goals, and they raise the more general implication that second chances promote risky behavior.

Assessment policies and academic performance within a single course: the role of motivation and self-regulation

“…Since the ECS students had a more lenient resit standard, these students had the guaranteed opportunity to retake the assessment, and thus had the option to postpone their effort until the resit. As ECS students took significantly more resits than psychology students, our results may confirm concerns about the consequences of resits, such as a reliance on second chances (Scott 2012), lower performance on the initial assessment (Grabe 1994), and lower investment of effort for the initial assessment (Nijenkamp et al 2016). However, an alternative explanation is that ECS students were more incentivized to attempt to improve their grade in the resit, as these students performed under higher stakes and a higher performance standard than psychology students.…”

“…However, promoting additional practice can also be viewed as a purpose of resits (Proud 2015). Fourthly, there are concerns about the negative effects resits may have on student learning, such as a reliance on second chances (Scott 2012), or lower investment of study time (Nijenkamp et al 2016).…”

Controlling the Resit Effect by Means of Investment Depreciation

“…As proposed by Kooreman (2013a) and empirically verified by Nijenkamp and colleagues (2016), the resit effect can be understood in terms of utility maximization. Specifically, the availability of a resit exam is assumed to change the tradeoff between the costs of study-time investment and the benefits of enhanced passing probability in such a way that rational students – that is, those motivated to optimize this tradeoff through maximizing expected utility – will now find an optimum at a reduced study time investment for the first opportunity.…”

“…A number of restrictive policies have been proposed to maintain the benefits and reduce the potential drawbacks of resit exams, including the windfall gain that is likely to materialize if resit opportunities are offered freely and unconditionally. For instance, we have found in a laboratory study (Nijenkamp et al, 2016) that the resit effect was markedly attenuated when access to the resit was made probabilistic (50%) as opposed to unconditional, whereas the effect was hardly affected when access was made conditional upon obtaining a minimum non-passing grade (4 on a 1–10 scale) on the first exam. Likewise, Michaelis and Schwanebeck (2016) discussed several examination policies that might help to attenuate the resit effect, such as imposing a financial charge for the resit, capping resit marks at the pass threshold, listing the number of attempts needed to pass in the exam report, and malus points accounts.…”

“…In one line of research it was found that the availability of a second opportunity to achieve a goal may lead to a reduced probability of achieving this goal in a first opportunity to do so (Napolitano & Freund, 2016; see also Shin & Milkman, 2016; Napolitano & Freund, 2017). In a second line of work, studies on the effects of resit exams – the opportunity to re-do a failed exam in order to pass a course – suggest that study-time investment for a first exam may be substantially lower if a resit is available (Kooreman, 2013a; Nijenkamp, Nieuwenstein, De Jong, & Lorist, 2016; Michaelis & Schwanebeck, 2016). It is this latter phenomenon – the resit effect – that the present study is specifically concerned with.…”