In this longitudinal study, we investigate how demographic, cognitive and meta-cognitive variables affect students' success in chemistry and physics exams in two Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics undergraduate courses, biology and engineering. Independent variables include high school final examination performance, chemistry and physics…

A successful first year is of vital importance to academic achievement in higher education. How can we identify those students at risk at a very early stage, i.e. even before they have entered university? This study focuses on three pre-university factors, namely academic self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, in terms of autonomous motivation…

The purpose of this study was to assess the merit of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal as a pre-admission criterion in conjunction with the frequently utilized admission criteria of the college prerequisite grade point average and the National League of Nursing pre-admission test. Data were collected from 192 first-year nursing…

Students in their first year of university face a number of transition issues that can make realising their academic potential difficult. In the sciences, first-year courses cover a large amount of material across broad subject areas, which can make them troublesome for students without background knowledge, and students need to adapt to typically…

Many U.S. students must pass a standards-based exit exam to earn a high school diploma. The degree to which exit exams and state standards properly signal to students their preparedness for postsecondary schooling has been questioned. The alignment of test scores with college grades for students at the University of Arizona (n = 2,667) who took…

The present study investigates whether pre-business students, after having completed a traditional in class freshmen introduction to global business course, express a difference in preference for such a course to be delivered online versus classroom or no preference at all. The study further explores whether four variables: 1) number of units of…

General education classrooms provide a common milieu for understanding and appropriating results of classroom research projects, which are typically viewed as having little application outside their original contexts. Here, results of an investigation into the "sophomore slump," where grades and class attendance rates typically suffer, are…

College admissions tests predict college performance well, particularly first year grade point average (GPA; Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2001, 2004). However, noncognitive measures may add to the incremental validity of cognitive measures in that they will assess a broader range of college performance dimensions and reduce racial subgroup differences…

This study investigates the value of a potential moderator variable, student self-evaluation of previous academic effort, in increasing the validity of prediction of academic performance. Correlations between predictors and grades were consistently higher for the high level of effort group. (Author)

Questionnaires and grade point averages were used to examine the academic, psychosocial, cognitive, and demographic predictors of academic performance of first-year Australian university students. Found that previous academic performance was the most significant predictor; integration into university, self-efficacy, and employment responsibilities…

Data from (n=470) students at Owens Technical College in Fall 1991 showed that high school GPA was the best predictor of grades in Basic Algebra, followed by high school rank, college GPA, ACT natural sciences, ASSET numerical skills, and ASSET elementary algebra scores. (11 references) (SW)

Shows that attrition/persistence (dropouts or students not continuously enrolled versus students continuously enrolled) is the primary, significant, single variate in the prediction of grades, and that attrition/persistence and American College Test (ACT) scores are the significant multiple variates in the prediction of grade point average. (RL)

This study was designed to determine whether adjustments for the differential prediction observed among sex, racial/ethnic, or age subgroups in one freshman class at a college could be used to improve prediction accuracy for these subgroups in future freshman classes. (Author/LMO)

Intent of this study was to examine an ability and achievement battery used in college engineering freshmen prediction for possible moderating effects in an attempt to enhance overall prediction. (Authors)