UTME AND POST-UTME SCORES AS PREDICTORS OF POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN FIRST YEAR NATIONAL DIPLOMA (ND) EXAMINATIONS

(A CASE STUDY OF MOSHOOD ABIOLA POLYTECHNIC, ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA.)

¹Sojobi, O.A., ²Mabosanyinje, A., ³Ogunsanya, B.G. and ⁴Sulaimon, M.O.

Department of Statistics & Mathematics

Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

E-mail: olayiwolasojobi@gmail.com,maboadedeji@yahoo.com,

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to examine the relative effectiveness of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) on the first year (NDI) academic performance of students admitted to Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in 2012/2013 session. This is a correlation research as well as Ex-Post facto design. The study was set out to investigate the relationship that exists between the performances of students in UTME and Post-UTME (predictor variables) and MAPOLY students’ achievement (CGPA) in first year ND examination (predicted variable). Secondary data from the institution were used to develop a predictive model. The population consists of all registered admitted students for the 2012/2013 academic session. Total sample of one thousand (1000) students were randomly selected from all the academic departments of the institution with respect to each department’s population vis-à-vis stratified sampling and simple random sampling technique. Using Multiple regression, Multiple correlation coefficient, Coefficient of multiple determination, t-Test, ANOVA F-Test, LSD multiple comparison test and Correlation Matrix to analyze the data, result shows the regression coefficient for Post-UTME to be 0.0212 with a  P-value of  while that for UTME to be 0.0004 with a P-value of . Findings show that Post-UTME was more effective than the UTME. More so, there was a low and inverse relationship between students’ score in Post-UTME and UTME. Polytechnics managements should give high priority to students’ Post-UTME performance than their UTME performance when admitting them. A 35% pass mark in Post-UTME in addition to a student’s UTME score is considered adequate when considering students for admission into polytechnics.  JAMB should be saddled with the responsibility of conducting pre-qualifying examination whereby polytechnics should be allowed to conduct a Post-UTME screening