The Ability of the Admission Measures to Predict the First Year GPA in some Saudi Universities

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of the General Aptitude Test )GAT( scores, the Standard Achievement Admission Test (SAAT) scores, and High School Percentage (HSP) scores to predict the first year GPA )FYGPA( of the students. Two large student samples were randomly drawn from Saudi universities. A sample of 29,763 students was used to study the relationship between FYGPA, GAT and HSP. A second sample )22,139( was used to study the relationship between FYGPA and GAT, SAAT, and HSP. Multiple regression analysis was used to calculate the single and multiple Raw )RC( and Adjusted Correlations )AC( of the predictors )GAT, SAAT, and HSP( with FYGPA. The range of RC and AC coefficients among the three predictors (GAT, SAAT, and HSP( ranged from )0.38( to )0.63(, and from )0.46( to )0.73( respectively. The single and multiple correlations between the FYGPA and GAT, SAAT, and HSP ranged from )0.41( to )0.50( and )0.51( to )0.57( for RC, and from )0.53( to )0.59( and )0.58( to )0.68( for AC, respectively. Incremental predictive validity of the three predictors ranged from )0.02( to )0.12( for RC and from )0.03( to )0.12( for AC. It was found that the predictive ability in older universities was more significant than in newly established ones..