Faster, Cheaper, More Accurate: Specialised Knowledge Tracing Models Outperform LLMs

Research comparing Knowledge Tracing (KT) models to Large Language Models (LLMs) for predicting student responses found that specialized KT models significantly outperform LLMs in accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness. The study demonstrates that domain-specific models are superior to general-purpose LLMs for educational prediction tasks, with LLMs being orders of magnitude slower and more expensive to deploy.