The “Shock” Factor in Students' Performance in Accounting Examinations

This paper examines, in an accounting context, possible bias due to students' receiving questions in course-coverage order versus random order. This paper extends prior research by combining longitudinal analysis with an independent measure of student ability to examine the interaction between ability and question order by student scores where some students receive questions in consecutive examinations in the same order pattern whereas other students receive questions in consecutive examinations in different order patterns. The results show what could be termed a “shock” factor. This “shock” factor interacts with student ability to the benefit of higher-ability students and to the detriment of middle-ability students. The performance of lower-ability students was not affected.