Impacts of Achievement in Secondary School on Performance in Accounting Professional Examinations in Bumiputra’s Academic Institution

Abstract

Professional accounting examinations among students and mature students were perceived as slightly challenging to pass for several reasons. Some previous empirical studies have compared students' results at the secondary school level and their results at higher education levels. Good students are expected to perform similarly in their higher education during school. In accounting professional examinations like ACCA, past studies have shown that only students with excellent results in secondary school should be allowed to join this programme as many students are having difficulties completing their studies. The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between the student’s past achievement in a secondary school based on the total numbers of A's and distinctions for a particular subject at Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) – a national examination similar to O-Level with their performance in the examination of ACCA. This study focuses on Kolej Universiti Poly-Tech MARA – a private university college in Kuala Lumpur. The methodology used in this study is by collecting data from the Institute of Professional Studies in KUPTM Academic Division database intake from 2015 until 2018. Data were analysed using SPSS Version 23. Our results showed that most students with 6 A’s and above, and A’s in Additional Mathematic subject in SPM is the main contributing factor to graduating in the ACCA examination, followed by distinction A’s in Additional Mathematic and A’s in English subject. Students from science stream backgrounds also contributed to the number of graduating in the ACCA professional examination. Other than that, this study reveals the distinction in Principles of Accounting subject during SPM and factor of gender do not contribute positive impact to be graduated or pass in professional accounting examinations in KUPTM.