  Improvements in performance and approval obtained by first year engineering
students from University of Concepcion, Chile, were studied, once a virtual
didactic model of multiple-choice exam, was implemented. This virtual learning
resource was implemented in the Web ARCO platform and allows training, by
facing test models comparable in both time and difficulty to those that they
will have to solve during the course. It also provides a feedback mechanism for
both: 1) The students, since they can verify the level of their knowledge. Once
they have finished the simulations, they can access a complete problem-solving
heuristic report of each problem; 2) The teachers, since they can obtain
information about the habits of the students in their strategies of
preparation; and they also can diagnose the weaknesses of the students prior to
the exam.
  This study indicates how this kind of preparation generates substantial
improvements on the approval rates by allowing the students: 1) A more
structured and oriented systematic study, and 2) To learn, from the feedback
report of each problem that the information described in their exams should
have, at each stage, a proper logical connection. Likewise, this study allows
differentiating how the repetition in the use of the platform and the formality
in the time invested indicate clear differences on the obtained performance.
