Comparative Analysis of two sets of data I have 2 sets of data which consist of marks of 60 students in a particular subject in year 1 and year 2 respectively.

Year 1 : 86, 76, 87, 67, 89, 95.... so on (60 students)

Year 2 : 82, 67, 99, 77, 65, 78.... so on (60 students)

I want to compare these two sets of marks and find if year 2 students performed better than year 1  students.

What kind of techniques are appropriate for this problem? I was told that the statistical techniques like ANOVA, hypothesis testing techniques are too common for this problem and I was asked to try something with Machine learning.

Does machine learning fit in the picture? If yes, what kind of algorithms could be used?
No, this is the classical application of statistical test. You should consider the problem in the scope of two-sample test. Machine learning does not fit in the picture.