Attainment Level on Leaving Certificate and Academic Performance at University

Abstract

SUMMARY. 1.-Six-hundred-and-seventy-fourArts students with Scottish Senior Leaving Certificates (S.S.L.Cs.) who entered Edinburgh University in 1949, 1950 and 1951, have been made the subjects of a follow-up, and the different attainment levels on Leaving Certificate compared with headway on the Arts courses.2.-The main findings are : There is a significant difference in over-all academic performance between students with S.S.L.C. qualifications which put them in the top 10 per cent. of the intake to the Arts Faculty in their year, and that of contemporary students with S.S.L.Cs. below this level. There is a significant difference in over-all academic performance in favour of students with S.S.L.Cs. above minimal entrance level (i.e., above 3 Highers+2 Lowers), compared with those with S.S.L.Cs. a t minimal entrance level. There is a significant difference in over-all academic performance in favour of students with S.S.L.Cs. a t the 4 Highers+any number of Lowers level compared with those a t the 3 Highers+any number of Lowers level.3.-The results are discussed with particular reference to the quite good predictive value for academic performance a t University of the S.S.L.C. at its various attainment levels, but its failure in a high proportion of cases to provide, by itself, a broad enough basis for deciding if the prospective Arts student is really suited for the University course he is undertaking.

University Student Selection in Relation to Subsequent Academic Performance: A Critical Appraisal of the British Evidence

“…The aggregation of the answers received revealed an apparently high degree of unjustified optimism regarding the potential of upper-sixth-form pupils. Of the men, 60 per cent were graded (b) and a further 30 per cent (a); whereas it is known that, in practice, some [15][16][17][18][19][20] per cent of those entering British universities fail to obtain a qualification. It is, of course, obvious that, when the selectors at a university or college have had close associations with particular schools and particular head teachers over a long period of time, the value of assessments of this kind may be substantially greater than the Furneaux results would suggest.…”