Four Characteristics of a Successful Student

I have been collecting a lot of data on which characteristics are related to higher test scores.  Some of them are surprising, but most of them are not.  (For those of you who are statistically or research minded, see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post)

1) Students who complete all notes before the day of the test do better on the test.

• Average test score(1) of students who completed all notes before the day of the test: 74%
• Average test score(1) of students who did not completed all notes before the day of the test: 63%

2) Students who complete all practice problems (assigned textbook problems) before the day of the test do better on the test.

• Average test score(1) of students who completed all practice problems before the day of the test: 77%
• Average test score(1) of students who did not completed all practice problems before the day of the test: 63%

3) Students who check and then correct their practice problems do better on the test:

• Average test score(2) of students who check and then correct practice problems: 76%
• Average test score(2) of students who check but don't correct practice problems: 65%
• Average test score(2) of students who don't check or correct practice problems: 66%

None of these have been suprising.  The next few may be interesting.

4) Successful students complete notes and practice problems for a section before moving onto the next section.

• Average test score(2) of students who complete notes and practice problems for a section before moving onto the next section: 75%
• Average test score(2) of students who complete all notes and then all practice problems: 66%
• Average test score(2) of students who follow some other sequence of work: 65%

The following don't show a significant difference in test scores:

• Amount of time that students spend outside of class on math
• Whether students did more practice problems, notes, or both during class.
• Whether students used my videos or used the textbook for notes.

Notes:
(1) Based on Chapters 2-9 of the 2012-2013 school years.  This data wast taken from my grade book.  The agerage test score for these tests is a 70%
(2) Based on Chapters 6 and 9 of the 2012-2013 school years.  These are the only chapters where this data was collected.  The average test score for these tests is a 71.5%

Statistical Disclaimer:
* These were all observational studies.  None of this research could show a cause and effect relationship.  Although I do encourage my students to do things that "successful students" do.