Online Examination

The validity of University Entrance Examination and High school

Grade point average for predicting first year university students’

academic performance.

Melaku Tesfa, s1397257,

m.t.tesema@student.utwente.nl

University of Twente, Faculty of Behavioural science

Supervisors:

Dr. Hans J.W. Luyten

Prof. Dr. Ir. Bernard Veldkamp

1

Summary

University entrance exam scores and High School grade point average are two admission

criteria that are currently used for higher education institutions in Ethiopia. It is essential to

investigate the predictive validities of these two criteria, to ensure the precision of admission

decisions. This study was conducted to examine the predictive validity of university entrance

exam scores and high school GPA for college performance in different programs at Addis Ababa

university; Differential validity was also measured across gender and school type (private vs

public) .Predictive validity was evaluated as an index of the relationship between the predictors

(High school GPA (HGPA) and the University entrance exam scores (UEEs) scores), and the

criterion (first year college GPA). The sample used in the study consisted of 217 students from

different study programs at Addis Ababa University. Statistical procedures utilized in the

research included descriptive, bivariate correlation and regression analyses. Results obtained

showed Both high school GPA and the University entrance exam scores significantly predict first

year college GPA in general and for each study program (mathematics, Geology, statistics &

computer science) as well . The combination of both predictors explained approximately 59 %

(for mathematics), 16 % (for Geology), 34% (for statistics) and 37% (for computer science

students) of the total variance in the first year college GPA. The comparison of the standardised

regression coefficients revealed that University entrance exam scores have higher predictive

power for all programs except for Geology, in which High school GPA...