This page contains list of releases and changes for the Practique Server software.

4.1.10 - 15th March 2016

Fixes

PRAC-871, PSD-180, PSD-178: Fix inconsistent pass/fail calculation due to rounding of the cut score

Issue
Practique Pass/Fail calculation for Candidates has been affected by inconsistent comparisons of rounded exam pass mark with not rounded Candidate score. This inconsistency may result in false Passes for Candidates whose score was very close to the rounded exam pass mark.

Example
Assume Exam pass mark (not rounded) is 32.23 then rounded value is 32 (mathematically rounded down) and Candidate score of 32.11.
When Practique calculate the Pass/Fail for above Candidate comparison is made using following expression “Pass when candidate_score >= rounded_exam_pass_mark (32.11 >= 32) otherwise Fail” which would indicate Candidate Pass despite he should have Failed because non rounded comparison of the values is 32.11 >= 32.23 indicating Fail instead of Pass.

Changes & Resolution
Changes have been made to calculations for Candidate Pass/Fail so that non rounded values are always used for comparison. This ensures that Candidate Pass/Fail will be calculated accurately.

It would be impractical to display raw values (precision of 16 decimal places) for mark related values (pass mark, mean score, etc…) on screens such as Standard Settings and others. Therefore Practique now consistently displays these values mathematically rounded to two decimal places throughout the system. Keep in mind that the rounding of the values is solely for the purpose of display.

False positives/negatives
While the calculation of the Pass/Fail is now accurate there can still be confusion when checking the results due to the fact that in very rare occasion two students with the same score (will be displayed rounded with 2 decimal places precision) will have different Pass/Fail which is due to the rounding of the values for display, Pass/Fail is accurate.

This would happen for example in case of scores 32.112342 (A) and 32.114234 (B) with exam pass mark of 32.113123. In this case student A would Fail with displayed score of 32.11 and student B would Pass with score 32.11.

The chance of this happening are very slim as the difference in score vs rounded score is at this level of precision negligible.

List of Screens and Reports affected by changes described above

Screen changes

• Set standard page 
  • Pass score
  • Download as CSV
• Set standard - Candidates)
  • Score
  • Max score
• View sessions - Candidates
  • Score
  • Max score
• Set standard - Items - View marks 
  • Score
• Set standard - Examiners
  • Mean score
• Examiners - View (Examiner detail)
  • Total score

Report changes
Candidate feedback report:

• Changed format of percentage values

Exam analysis report:

• Changed format of percentage values
• Minimum score
• Maximum score
• Median
• Mode
• Mean
• Standard error of mean
• Standard deviation
• Cut score
• Pass Score rounded
• "Cut Scores & SEM" section

Station cut score report:

• Mean score
• Cut score
• Max score
• Standard deviation

Other changes:

•  Standard settings
  • which columns are affected by rounding

* which columns are affected by the display changes
* Passing score column - Do we need this as it seems just as a rounded Cut+SEM?
* Examiners screen
* ??
* Candidate marks (via Current session > View Candidates, Standard settings > Candidates)
* Rounding - Pass/Fail column
* Formatting - ?
* View items (via Current session > View Items, Standard settings > Items)
* Rounding - Passes (calculates correct number of passes)
* Formatting - ?
* Marks for one station — ??
* Formatting - X, Y formatted to show 2 decimal places
* Question Statistics Analysis Report
*
* Candidate feedback report
* Rounding - Pass/Fail calculation
* Formatting - Percentage values through out use 2 decimal places precision
* Exam analysis report
* Formatting - Minimum score, Maximum score, Median, Mode, Mean use 2 decimal places presision
* Formatting - Cut score & SEM section use 2 decimal places precision
* Rounding - Cut score & SEM section reports accurate number of passes

4.1.9 - 10th March 2016

New features

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