2021 BoS MX2 exam (1 Viewer)

[CM_Tutor]

As many of you are probably aware, I have begun a discussion of the 2021 BoS chemistry exam, and I thought I'd start one for the MX2 paper as well.

For those who have not seen the paper, Trebla has posted it at https://boredofstudies.org/threads/bos-trials-maths-and-chemistry-2021.397055/page-2#post-7398786

I've looked at the MCQ, and found:

• 3 of the 10 questions were answered correctly by at least 70% of those who took the exam
• 6 of the questions were answered correctly by between 50% and 70% of those who took the exam
• 1 question was answered correctly by fewer than 50% of those who took the exam

I am interested in thoughts about which of the MCQ might be in the 3 easiest questions (those which most participants answered correctly) and which might be the question that the majority answered incorrectly. I'm also interested in general comments on the exam, of course, along with any typos needing correction, etc.

Unlike the chemistry exam, I was not involved in writing this paper, so questions about that will need to be answered by others. I am marking parts of the paper, however.

Finally, I offer my congratulations to the one person who must be excluded from a Rasch analysis of the MCQ. Rasch analysis of MCQ can only be done if any questions answered correctly (or incorrectly) by every student are excluded, along with any students who answered every question correctly (or incorrectly). In this case, the exclusion is the one-and-only 10 out of 10. May I say to that person, very impressive!

 

[icycledough]

I'd think 1, 4 and 9 were the 3 questions which at least 70% of people got right

8 seems like the one question less than 50% got right

So the remaining (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10) were answered by between 50% and 70%

 

[CM_Tutor]

Anyone else have thoughts?

 

[Pedro123]

I agree that 8 seems like the one less than 50% got right, but think the >70% ones are 1,4 and 7 (Though I am not too certain about 7, perhaps it was 2? I would say 3, but not a lot of people are too comfortable with that notation IMO).

I did think this was a lovely multi-choice section whoever wrote it (Waiting for solutions before I do the rest of the paper). I'm especially a fan of Q5!

 

[CM_Tutor]

@Pedro123 and @icycledough, you have each correctly identified one of the three questions that most of candidates answered correctly... and the question that proved most difficult was not Q8.

 

[Pedro123]

Oh so is this going to be like mastermind where we keep guessing? Nah, I'm kidding, but that's pretty interesting that only 1 of the 4 identified was correct.
Are the 3 that most answered amongst 1, 2, 3, 4? The only other question I could think of being the "hardest" question was 6

 

[CM_Tutor]

I'm not going to keep dropping hints, no You have exams to prepare for... but I do think it is interesting to see what you think are the difficult questions.

I will post information on the BoS exams soon - I'm hoping to comment more on the MCQ later tonight but I need to do some other tasks first.

 

[CM_Tutor]

I can advise that all of the MX2 marking has been completed.

For those who have been wondering, the three MCQ that were answered most successfully were questions 3, 7, and 9.

The MCQ answered least successfully was... question 6.

 

[icycledough]

Interesting ... I was trying to decide between 6 and 8 for the questions answered least successfully, so it makes sense. I guess there were quite a few questions I would have thought would have been the most successful by candidates, so it was kind of a juggle. If you don't mind answering, how many people does BoS get per year to attempt their BoS trials exams (for Chem, 3U and 4U)?

 

[CM_Tutor]

Interesting ... I was trying to decide between 6 and 8 for the questions answered least successfully, so it makes sense. I guess there were quite a few questions I would have thought would have been the most successful by candidates, so it was kind of a juggle. If you don't mind answering, how many people does BoS get per year to attempt their BoS trials exams (for Chem, 3U and 4U)?

We have a maximum number that is based on availability of a suitable location (when done in-person in past years) and on what we can cope with marking.

We had all the slots filled this year, as I understand has been the case in previous years. I was disappointed at how many people registered but did not attend / submit. So, we have ended up marking fewer papers this year than anticipated.

 

[Paradoxica]

honestly we could have taken at least 50% more people due to no physical space requirements and digital marking is a breeze compared to marking a physical booklet

 

[CM_Tutor]

honestly we could have taken at least 50% more people due to no physical space requirements and digital marking is a breeze compared to marking a physical booklet

Here's an opinion I disagree with, on the marking front.

As for more people, we had around double the number of papers we ended up with in registrations.

 

[Paradoxica]

well it does help i got question 16 which only had 7 submissions, and most of question 13 were attempts consisting of less than one complete part (on average)

 

[CM_Tutor]

well it does help i got question 16 which only had 7 submissions, and most of question 13 were attempts consisting of less than one complete part (on average)

If I've calculated correctly, after removing the parts where no attempt was made, I marked 61.6% of the available marks for the MX2 exam... and I am marking all of the chemistry!

 

[CM_Tutor]

It is my understanding that the results will be made available today, but that assumes nothing has made that unachievable.

I will post a summary about the MCQ as soon as I've got a "yes" to do so. I will only be posting about aggregated results, however, not about any individual performance in the exam.

 

[Paradoxica]

If I've calculated correctly, after removing the parts where no attempt was made, I marked 61.6% of the available marks for the MX2 exam... and I am marking all of the chemistry!

yeah I would have taken more marking but idk I wasn’t assigned everything I was willing to take on

 

[CM_Tutor]

For anyone who hasn't noticed, comments on the 2021 BoS MX2 exam have been posted. The distributions of answers for the MCQ have been posted here.