The Prediction of Academic Performance from Personality and Aptitude Variables

Abstract

In a sample of 970 female and 968 male freshmen taken over a 5-year period at the College of Wooster it was found that the Math and Verbal Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) were more highly correlated with freshman grade point average (GPA) than were any of the eighteen scales of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). Stepwise regression led the author to suggest a series of five variables for each sex which might be used to predict academic achievement using the SAT and the CPI. For women, a multiple R of .52 was reached using Math, Verbal, Socialization, Achievement via Conformity, and Flexibility. For men, Math, Verbal, Socialization, Flexibility, and Femininity provided a multiple R of . 57.