Physics Entrance Testing at Technical University

Abstract

The paper deals with the organization of entrance physics testing for first-year BMSTU students of all majors and specialties. The role and position of testing in the educational process of a technical university is discussed on the example of entrance testing conducted by the Department of Physics. The advantages of entrance testing as one of the types of control of students residual knowledge are shown. The subjects of the tasks of entrance testing are presented and an example of typical variants of test tickets is given. The analysis of the degree of solution of the input testing problems for all faculties has been carried out. It has been established that the following sections of the school physics course: “Electrostatics”, “Magnetism”, and “Mechanical vibrations” cause the greatest difficulties. A comparative analysis of the entrance test has been conducted at the faculties of “Basic Sciences” and “Special Engineering” for the 2018 and 2019 academic years. The connection between the entrance testing results and passing scores at the faculties of technical university ihas been revealed. It has been shown that entrance testing allows to determine the percentage of students’ retained knowledge at the school physics course and make adjustments to organize students’ additional auditorial and individual work. The lecturer has the opportunity to correct the presentation of the physics course in order to increase the percentage of retained knowledge in future.