Common Errors in High School Novice Programming

Abstract

Identifying and classifying the commonness of errors made by novices learning to write computer programs has long been of interest to both: researchers and educators. When teachers understand the nature of these errors and how students correct them, instruction can be more effective. Some errors occur more frequently than others. In this paper, we examine the most common programming errors made by beginning first-year high school gifted mathematics students in Mathematical High School. Notwithstanding the extensive coverage of these error types in lectures and learning materials, we found that these errors still occur when students write programs. Our results suggest that students who habitually make all common errors have lower grades, but even excellent students make logical errors in loop conditions. Therefore, we advise more practice in logical reasoning for novice programmers and an introduction to formal semantics.