3.2 Questionnaire results: Categorised by ability

The results for the subsets of trial participants with self-assessed abilities of greater than and less than the mean constitute figures 3.12 to 3.22.

**Figure 3.12:** Students were asked to say how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the following statements:``I thought the handbook was too long'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/handbookcomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.13:** ``I had trouble indenting my program correctly'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/indenting1comp.eps}$

**Figure 3.14:** ``I understood the significance of indentation'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/indenting2comp.eps}$

**Figure 3.15:** ``I found the error message sufficiently helpful such that when they arose I could quickly see the problem'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/errorscomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.16:** ``I often made syntax errors like missing colons and brackets'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/syntaxcomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.17:** ``I did not understand the explanation of arrays'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/arrayscomp.eps}$

**Figure:** ``I had trouble *reading from* files'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/readingcomp.eps}$

**Figure:** ``I had trouble *writing* to files'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/writingcomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.20:** ``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. (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/rangecomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.21:** ``I did not use the interactive interpreter much after the first couple of exercises'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/interactivecomp.eps}$

**Figure 3.22:** ``I would rather write the program for the problem I solved in Python than Pascal (put n/a if you can't remember Pascal!)'' (low and high ability comparison)
$\includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{fig/comp/pythoncomp.eps}$