A quantitative case study in engineering of the efficacy of quality cheat-sheets

Although authorized cheat-sheets have been widely accepted as a common examination format, their effectiveness is still being questioned. Some researchers believe authorized cheat-sheets are more like a "crutch" and have no effect on students' performance. In this study, we created a cheat-sheet rating scheme to evaluate the quality of authorized cheatsheets collected with each exam (N=155) and investigated the effect of cheat-sheet quality on students' grades. This study reveals that 1) the average cheat-sheet's quality varies significantly between those students who scored in the top half of the class versus those whose score was in the lower half of the class; 2) students' grades are highly related to their cheatsheet quality and 3) if students manage to improve the quality of their cheat-sheets from one examination to the next, their grades tend to improve for that subsequent examination.