Contribution of "Non-Exam" Assessment to Undergraduate Final Grade: A Case Study on the Subject Thermodynamics 1

This paper describes the study on the difference and implication of continuous assessment and exam-type assessment to students? performance in the subject Fundamental Thermodynamics.The case study was carried out to measure the effect of weightage given to two types of assessments namely "non-exam" and "exam-based assessment". The analysis was done by varying the percentage contribution of the two methods and its corresponding contribution towards the students? final grades. It is shown that higher weightage on the non-exam assessment results in better overall grade for the student. It is also alarming that majority of students achieve weak grade for exam-based assessment, but the overall grade improves as the cumulative marks include the non-exam assessment marks at which most students performed better.