Analysis of the effectiveness of open-ended style activities on students’ performance in an engineering admission test

In the academic year 2022/2023, an orientation course addressed to high school students was proposed at Politecnico di Milano. The course was conducted using active methodologies referring to the Problem-Based-Learning pedagogical framework. Most of the time was dedicated to an Open-Ended style physics laboratory in which students worked in small groups exploring different areas of Physics. The main aim of the course was to foster science self-efficacy and motivation, in order to enable students to prepare themselves for passing the test required to enrol on any engineering programme at Politecnico di Milano university. To investigate the effectiveness of that course, a statistical analysis of students’ attendance and students’ results on the test was performed. The results of the analysis show that students who attended the course had a slightly better improvement in their test scores compared to those who did not attend. The impact of the course seems to be more effective for female students. The results confirm the validity of active and open-ended activities to increase scholastic performance and to enable students in an autonomous preparation. Using these strategies in an orientation course can help students make more informed choices about the university pathway best suited to them, thereby reducing issues related to student dropout.