Abstract:

 

 

The performance of science students is judged through term-end examination, continuous assessment, laboratory and/or project evaluation. Recently, we studied the performance of IGNOU science graduates in laboratory courses using data mining technique and discovered that while Chemistry practical courses were the most popular, Life Science was picking up. We have extended this study to consider comparative student performance in theory courses. We considered the entire pool of science students registered between 1992- 2003. The data was refined to obtain meaningful repository of students' records and 10,561 active student records have been analysed in detail. It is found that (I) about 37% students are active. (1;) performance in science practical courses and continuous evaluation raise performance without any definite correlation with enhancement of competencies. Most of the active students can be segregated in five categories and the number of deep and strategic learners is very small (3%). Every alternate student is normal and/or superficial.