3.1 Questionnaire results: All students

The mean self-assessed programming ability was 4.1 (on a scale of one to ten), with a standard deviation of 2.3.

The results of the questionnaire for the entire sample, regardless of ability constitute figures 3.1 to 3.11.

**Figure 3.1:** Students were asked to say how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the following statements:``I thought the handbook was too long''
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**Figure 3.2:** ``I had trouble indenting my program correctly''
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**Figure 3.3:** ``I understood the significance of indentation''
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**Figure 3.4:** ``I found the error message sufficiently helpful such that when they arose I could quickly see the problem''
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**Figure 3.5:** ``I often made syntax errors like missing colons and brackets''
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**Figure 3.6:** ``I did not understand the explanation of arrays''
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**Figure:** ``I had trouble *reading from* files''
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**Figure:** ``I had trouble *writing* to files''
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**Figure 3.9:** ``I had trouble with the limits of the range() function''; the range() function is a function that generates lists starting at zero (rather than one) which is a common cause of confusion.
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**Figure 3.10:** ``I did not use the interactive interpreter much after the first couple of exercises''
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**Figure 3.11:** ``I would rather write the program for the problem I solved in Python than Pascal (put n/a if you can't remember Pascal!)''
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