Measuring the Level of Algorithmic Skills at the End of Secondary Education in Hungary

Abstract

Students starting their tertiary studies in Informatics are found to have a low level of algorithmic skills and understanding of programming, which leads to the high number of drop out students and failed semesters during their studies. The students’ low level of programming skills contrasts with their excellent results in the school leaving exams. To find out the reasons for this we have launched the TAaAS project (Testing Algorithmic and Application Skills), which focuses on the students’ algorithmic skills and programming ability in traditional and non-traditional programming environments. Our analyses proved that school leaving exams are not able to measure these abilities of the students, and beyond that, are not able to distinguish between the different levels of the students. Students are accepted into the universities and start their studies based on the misleading results of the school leaving exams.