Machine Learning with R - Second Edition

Chapter 10. Evaluating Model Performance

When only the wealthy could afford education, tests and exams did not evaluate students' potential. Instead, teachers were judged for parents who wanted to know whether their children had learned enough to justify the instructors' wages. Obviously, this has changed over the years. Now, such evaluations are used to distinguish between high- and low-achieving students, filtering them into careers and other opportunities.

Given the significance of this process, a great deal of effort is invested in developing accurate student assessments. Fair assessments have a large number of questions that cover a wide breadth of topics and reward true knowledge over lucky guesses. They also require students to think about ...