College Entrance Examination Scores Research Articles

The impact of honors education on students’ academic and innovative achievements: a longitudinal study in China (2011–2021)

Honors education has ascended as an integral element within the sphere of global higher education, concentrating on fostering individuals who exhibit creativity and a history of innovative achievements. Despite its widespread adoption, there remains a scarcity of exhaustive longitudinal studies investigating its effects and associated variables. To address this shortcoming, this study deploys rigorous structural equation modeling (SEM) and linear regression analyses to meticulously examine a dataset comprising 319 students, who enrolled over a decade (2011–2021) in a prestigious honors college at a preeminent university in China. The primary objective is to discern the predictive efficacy of Chinese honors education selection criteria on students’ creative and academic accomplishments. This endeavor strives to clarify the complex interplay among students’ creative personalities, academic performance, creative achievements, and standardized college entrance exam scores. The findings emphasize that individuals who exhibit enhanced creative personality traits are predisposed to elevated levels of both innovation and academic attainment (β = 0.170, p = 0.017). Additionally, a significant inverse relationship is observed between general learning aptitude and subsequent academic performance (β = −0.008, p = 0.023), while students pursuing science disciplines demonstrate superior innovation outcomes compared to their liberal arts counterparts (β = 0.125, p = 0.048). Interestingly, neither gender nor general academic prowess exerts significant predictive power over collegiate innovation (β = −0.002, p = 0.134). These empirical insights equip policymakers and scholars with nuanced perspectives on the determinants shaping students’ refined educational experiences, thereby inciting critical discourse concerning the refinement of selection criteria and the imperative of nurturing students’ creative proclivities.

Stress and Cognitive Performance: Evidence from a South Korean Earthquake

Abstract Studies have identified negative effects of cortisol, a stress hormone, on academic performance. Because natural disasters induce community-wide stress, students who experience natural disasters may subsequently perform worse academically. Our study is the first to examine the immediate effects of close exposure to a natural disaster on academic performance. We examine the impact of the 2017 Pohang earthquake in South Korea on college entrance exam scores. The 5.4 magnitude quake occurred one day before the scheduled nationwide college entrance exam date, necessitating its postponement for one week. Several aftershocks occurred during that postponement period. We find that the earthquake decreased the reading test scores of students in the Pohang area by 0.05 standard deviation but had no effect on math test scores. The reading test was administered earlier in the day than the math test, so these findings suggest that students taking exams in post-traumatic situations might be able to perform better after a warm-up testing period. Finally, male students suffered the largest adverse impacts on their reading test scores, with serious implications given the high-stakes nature of the exams.

Chinese University Students' Growth in Critical Thinking: Accounting for School Transition and Selection Effects

Evaluating cognitive ability and skills development in higher education presents challenges because the focal outcome often serves as, or at least is reflected in, selection criteria for college admission decisions. Additionally, the baseline abilities and skills gained from earlier educational experiences impact students' further learning outcomes. To address these challenges, we propose an integrated framework for estimating students' growth that accounts for lasting transition effects and varying selection effects. Using a nationally representative longitudinal sample of Chinese university students, we found that students experienced medium-sized growth (0.67) in critical thinking skills, with a large effect size observed for evaluating the reasoning of an argument, a medium effect size for evaluating argument implications, and no significant growth in evaluating argument credibility. Our estimates of transition effects showed that the impact of earlier education experience on students' critical thinking growth diminished in the college years. After controlling students' socioeconomic status and the college entrance examination scores, we found that the within-university advantage in the college entrance examination served as a factor in explaining the university impacts on students’ critical thinking. Our findings provide rich insights into improving the evaluation of critical thinking skills in Chinese universities, and our illustrative framework can also be applied to similar education contexts.

Effects of Entry Grades on Students' Academic Performance Under Homogeneous Educational Resources.

A minor difference in college entrance examination scores can result in vastly different educational resources in China, so it has been debated whether it is the difference in the student population or the difference in educational resources that causes the difference in medical graduates. We aimed to evaluate the effects of entry grades on students' academic performance under homogeneous educational resources. Students in grade 2016 with 13-point difference in the average admission scores of 2 medicine schools in Sun Yat-sen University were educated in mixed classes and were taught with the same educators during the 5 years of undergraduate period. The grades, graduation, and postgraduate enrollment rates of the students were compared between the two campuses. The average admission scores for Shenzhen Campus (SZC) students are 13 points lower than those of Guangzhou North Campus (GZNC) (613 points vs 626 points). After 5 years of homogeneous education, comparing the GZNC students with the SZC students, there were no significant differences in the average total score (80.2 ± 4.6 vs 80.0 ± 5.6, P = 0.691), the average compulsory course (78.9 ± 3.4 vs 78.4 ± 6.1, P = 0.438), the average core course score (78.8 ± 7.4 vs 78.7 ± 5.0, P=0.860) and the average clerkship score (85.1 ± 7.2 vs 84.6 ± 2.7, P=0.275). However, the completion rate for SZC was higher than for GZNC (93.94% vs 86.27%, P=0.009). There was no statistical difference in postgraduate enrolment between the two institutions (P=0.758). Given the same educational resources, more medical students with lower entrance scores completed their studies and achieved the same percentage of postgraduate acceptance. This finding suggests that a key component of improving the quality of medical higher education in China may be to further rationalize the allocation of high-quality educational resources, rather than to pursuing students with high entrance examination scores.

ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCING FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION SCORES

The college entrance examination scores are significant for students. In China, the result of the college entrance examination is the only criterion for judging whether a student can enter a university. This study takes some students from China West Normal University to analyze the factors that may influence the scores. Through the statistical analysis of SPSS, it is found that gender is related to the score of college entrance examination, and the place of origin is significantly related to the score of college entrance examination. The causes of the various phenomena are analyzed, and targeted suggestions are put forward to provide valuable references for improving students' performance.

Why Metametonymic Argot in the Publicity Texts of China’s National College Entrance Examination Scores?

After China’s National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in recent years, some high schools tend to publicize their NCEE scores by QQ groups, WeChat groups, or posters in an implicit manner due to the inconformity of NCEE-score publicity with the present educational policy in China. NCEE-score publicity texts are now presented like a discussion of harvest events such as a harvest of a type of plant or animal. This paper studies how and why such texts occur. It is found that: 1) each text is a metaphorical one, mapping plants, animals or other things onto NCEE testees, 2) each text is a textual configuration by metaphor chains of a harvest of plants, animals or other things, 3) the metaphors in each text are also metonymies, hence metametonymies, 4) all expressions in the text make a metametonymic argot, 5) each text is rich in pragma-rhetorical values. Be that as it may, in the context of maintaining NCEE fairness, NCEE-score publicity texts, however implicit, should not be encouraged despite their cleverness in evading official punishment.

Investigation of Preservice Science Teachers’ Scientific Literacy Skills in terms of Academic Achievement, University Entrance Exam Scores and Grade Level

The first aim of this research is to investigate preservice science teachers’ scientific literacy skills in terms of university entrance exam scores, academic achievement average scores, grade levels and academic achievement levels. And the second one is to determine the predictive power of university entrance exam scores and academic achievement average scores on scientific literacy skills. In line with these listed aims of the research, this study was carried out in survey design of the quantitative paradigm. 154 preservice science teachers constituted the participants of this research. The participants’ skills scores were obtained with “Scientific Literacy Skills Test” and the research hypotheses were tested statistically. Results revealed that participants’ scientific literacy skills differed in favor of upper classes, there was significant but low relationship between their skills and academic achievement average scores. In addition, it was found that participants’ university entrance exam scores did not significantly predict their skills, academic achievement average scores significantly predicted their skills but at a low rate (7%) and there was no significant relationship between their university entrance exam scores and skills. In line with these results, suggestions were made regarding the revision of universities' science teaching programs with the object to advance preservice science teachers' scientific literacy skills.

The punishment is the reward – why elite Chinese students take supplementary Chinese literacy tutoring despite viewing it as ineffective

Abstract Reward and punishment are basic concepts in psychology. To survive better, humans and animals often need to maximize rewards and minimize punishments and threats. The human brain makes judgments about rewards and punishments based on distinguishing among complex environmental factors and makes decisions about future actions accordingly. Chinese students have spent more than a decade of primary and secondary school education with purposeful, fine-grained time management learning with the goal of success on the college entrance exam (Gaokao). The relationship between rewards and punishments for literacy tutoring at the primary and secondary school levels and the decision-making behavior of students and parents is therefore a question worth exploring. The purpose of this paper is to explore the decision-making mechanisms of elite Chinese students’ participation in or withdrawal from literacy tutoring in Chinese and the factors behind the reward and punishment mechanisms through grounded method analysis. The results show that most elite students and their parents do not believe that language literacy tutoring will significantly improve their chances for better college entrance exam scores, but there is a complex relationship between their decision-making behavior in tutoring and the reward and punishment mechanisms. Literacy improvement, emotional values, parent-child support obligations and even face-saving culture all contribute to students’ and parents’ decision-making behaviors. Choosing tutoring that is not seen as likely to improve test scores is a common phenomenon, which suggests that the punishment itself provides the reward that drives decisions to pursue literacy tutoring.

Medical students' academic satisfaction: Social cognitive factors matter.

Academic satisfaction (AS)-the extent to which people enjoy their role or experiences as medical students-has important implications for well-being and career development. This study explores the relationships between social cognitive factors and AS in a Chinese medical education context. The social cognitive model of academic satisfaction (SCMAS) was adopted as the theoretical framework. Within this model, AS is assumed to be related to social cognitive factors-environmental supports, outcome expectations, perceived goal progress and self-efficacy. Demographic variables, financial pressure, college entrance examination scores and social cognitive constructs in SCMAS were collected. To explore the relationships between medical students' social cognitive factors and AS, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. The final sampled data consisted of 127 042 medical students from 119 medical institutions. Demographic variables, financial pressure and college entrance examination scores were first entered in Model 1, explaining 4% of the variance in AS. Social cognitive factors were entered in Model 2, explaining an additional 39% of the variance. Medical students would report higher levels of AS when they (a) held strong confidence in their skills needed for success in studying medicine (β = 0.20, p < 0.05), (b) had optimistic beliefs about the outcome of studying medicine (β = 0.40, p < 0.05), (c) felt that they were making good progress in studying medicine (β = 0.06, p < 0.05) and (d) believed that they received adequate environmental support (β = 0.25, p < 0.05). The outcome expectations showed the strongest correlation with AS, and each 1-point increase was associated with 0.39 points on the AS score, controlling for all other factors in the model. Social cognitive factors play an important role in medical students' AS. Intervention programmes or courses aiming to improve medical students' AS are advised to consider social cognitive factors.

Towards research-based organizational structures in mathematics tutoring centres

Abstract Undergraduate mathematics tutoring centres are prevalent in many countries; however, there is limited research-based evidence on effective organizational structures for these centres. In this study, we consider two research questions. First, how can the quantitative and qualitative data from 10 mathematics tutoring centres be organized for research purposes? Second, what hypotheses do expert mathematics tutoring centre leaders generate about characteristics of effective centres given data from a sample of ten centres? We collected quantitative data from over 26,000 students taking mathematics courses at ten institutions. Data collected included college entrance exam scores, high school grade point average, number of student visits to the centre per eligible student and course letter grade. We used exploratory data analysis to look for relationships between visits to the tutoring centre, student grades and other variables. Qualitative centre characteristics that were considered include: specialist–generalist tutoring system, tutoring capacity, physical layout, relationships between tutors and mathematics instructors and extent of tutor training. We used the Delphi process to generate testable hypotheses from the data, such as the following: (1) The more courses a tutor is responsible for tutoring the more likely it is that the tutor will struggle to answer student questions, when the difficulty level of the courses is roughly the same. (2) Centres with more specialized tutor models have more visits per student than centres with generalized tutor models. The preceding two hypotheses, along with the other generated hypotheses, have been identified by the experts participating in this study as plausible based on professional experience, exploratory data analysis and inferences based on prior research on tutoring. This study has not rigorously shown the validity of these hypotheses; rather it lays the groundwork for future investigations to determine what combination of features characterize an effective tutoring centre.

Advanced Placement and Initial College Enrollment: Evidence from an Experiment

Abstract To evaluate how Advanced Placement (AP) courses affect college-going, we randomly assigned the offer of enrollment into an AP science course to over 1,800 students in twenty-three schools that had not previously offered the course. We find no AP course effects on students’ college entrance exam scores (SAT/ACT). As expected, AP course-takers are substantially more likely to take the AP exam than their control group counterparts. At the same time, treatment group students opt out of the exam at very high rates and most do not earn a passing score on the AP exam. Though less precisely estimated, the results also suggest that taking the AP course increases students’ aspirations to attend higher-quality colleges but does not lead to enrollment in such institutions.

Mathematical Analysis of the Relationship between College Entrance Exam Scores and Information and Computing Science Discipline Performance in a Chinese University

Mathematical Analysis of the Relationship between College Entrance Exam Scores and Information and Computing Science Discipline Performance in a Chinese University

National student loans default risk prediction: A heterogeneous ensemble learning approach and the SHAP method

National student loans are crucial for ensuring that economically disadvantaged students are able to complete their education successfully, however, the high default rate and excessive demand associated with these loans pose significant risks to various stakeholders. Students' repayment behavior can have adverse impacts on the state, banks, universities, and themselves. Despite the importance of this issue, there has been a lack of empirical research on national student loan default data using machine learning methods, and it has ignored the impact that student growth processes may have on default behavior. In this study, we addressed this research gap by integrating multiple heterogeneous machine learning models through performance analysis to improve prediction accuracy. Furthermore, we utilized the SHAP interpretable method to examine the relationship between students' growth process and loan default behavior in greater depth. The results of this study confirmed that the total amount of scholarships received by students during their school years has a significant impact on the occurrence of loan default. Specifically, the more scholarships students receive, the less likely they are to default. Additionally, we found that students' performance during school, as reflected by their GPA, is a significant predictor of default behavior. Surprisingly, we also found that college entrance examination scores can influence the risk of loan default to a certain extent. This study provides valuable insights for schools regarding students who apply for national student loans and establishes a bridge for college administrators to predict students' default behavior based on campus “big data”. Based on the study results, college administrators can design “precise” education programs during students' study period to effectively reduce the risk of national student loan default.

Predictions of success in organic chemistry based on a mathematics skills test and academic achievement

Organic Chemistry I presents challenges to many students pursuing diverse fields of study, oftentimes curtailing further progress in those fields. The ability to identify students at risk of unsuccessful course outcomes may lead to improved success rates by offering tailored resources to those students. Previously identified predictors include college entrance exam scores, grade point averages (GPA), General Chemistry II course grades, first exam scores, and results from a logical thinking assessment. This work explores the use of the 20-item Math-Up Skills Test (MUST) in a first-semester organic chemistry course over two years at a small private university. Analysis of scores on the MUST, which is taken during the first week of the semester, indicates a statistically significant difference between successful and unsuccessful first-time students (n = 74 and 49, respectively) as the MUST has good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.861) and a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.29). Taken alone, the MUST predicts students at risk of not passing the course with 64% accuracy; addition of start-of-term science GPA data improves predictions to 82% accuracy. Predictions are further improved with incorporation of scores from the first exam of the semester. Observations to date indicate that the MUST is an easily administered assessment that can be utilized alone or as part of a trio of measures to predict success in first-semester Organic Chemistry. Implications of a mathematics assessment as a predictor for Organic Chemistry are addressed.

Real-world effectiveness of a social-psychological intervention translated from controlled trials to classrooms

Social-psychological interventions have raised the learning and performance of students in rigorous efficacy trials. Yet, after they are distributed “in the wild” for students to self-administer, there has been little research following up on their translational effectiveness. We used cutting-edge educational technology to tailor, scale up, and track a previously-validated Strategic Resource Use intervention among 12,065 college students in 14 STEM and Economics classes. Students who self-administered this “Exam Playbook” benefitted by an average of 2.17 percentage points (i.e., a standardized effect size of 0.18), compared to non-users. This effect size was 1.65 percentage points when controlling for college entrance exam scores and 1.75 [−1.88] for adding [dropping] the Exam Playbook in stratified matching analyses. Average benefits differed in magnitude by the conduciveness of the class climate (including peer norms and incentives), gender, first-generation status, as well as how often and how early they used the intervention. These findings on how, when, and who naturally adopts these resources address a need to improve prediction, translation, and scalability of social-psychological intervention benefits.

Group-based trajectory model to analyze the growth of students’ academic performance: a longitudinal investigation at one Taiwanese high school

This study investigated the growth trajectory of academic achievement in Math and English among 519 students in a vocational senior high school in Taiwan. Covering the complete individual learning profile, our dataset included pre-enrollment variables, periodic test scores, and college entrance examination scores. We employed a group-based trajectory model that identified three homogenous subgroups with distinct trajectories of academic achievement in Math and English and demonstrated baseline predictive factors associated with these trajectories as well as relationships between different trajectories and students’ college entrance examination scores. Our analysis contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study demonstrates that when school practices focus on improving or remediating the performance of students in the low-achievement group, the obvious decrease in performance of those in the middle is ignored. Such finding indicates the need for inclusive or specialized practices that enhance the performance of students in all groups. Second, our analysis reveals that pre-enrollment academic preparation appears to be a strong predictor of later academic performance as noted through the reproduction of pre-enrollment academic performance in students’ college entrance examination scores. Therefore, upon enrollment, schools should start interventions that reflect the needs of different groups of students.

Better School, Better Score? Evidence From a Chinese Earthquake-Stricken County

Abstract Little is known about the long-term impact of postdisaster government support on students’ educational outcomes in selective high schools. Using the instrumental variable approach and administrative education data on an earthquake-affected county, we found that entering a selective high school in a postdisaster government-supported county reduces the college entrance examination scores of students and, thus, their success in attending college. Suggestive evidence showed that the redistribution of educational resources across schools could be a reason for this negative impact of selective schools. We conclude that raising awareness of this educational misallocation problem can be of great importance in improving the average level of human capital in rural areas.

Consistency of Zhejiang Provincial College Entrance Examination Questions and Curriculum Standards Based on Knowledge Map Construction

Students’ scores on the advanced placement exercise test are an important guide to the development of personalized instructional tutoring. Traditional exercise test systems only counts the total value of students’ scores in each question and cannot analyze students’ different levels of mastery of each aspect of knowledge and intelligence, which limits the accuracy of teaching and tutoring. By introducing the cognitive diagnosis theory, we designed and implemented a personalized online college entrance examination exercise test system, which realizes the functions of test management, course management, group paper management, and learning reports. Based on the college entrance examination score record and knowledge point correlation matrix, we can analyze the students’ knowledge mastery status comprehensively.

The relationship between aerobic capacity and cognitive/academic performance in medical students.

The positive relationship between aerobic capacity and cognitive performance is well known, but there is little information regarding young adults. Therefore, we aimed to test the hypothesis that aerobic capacity (VO2max) correlates with cognitive and academic performance in medical students who have higher academic achievement with academic performance. We included 65 volunteer medical students who were in term 2/6 in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. Body composition and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and cardiopulmonary exercise test results of all participants were analyzed. Lumosity application with 6 categories of cognitive tests was applied to evaluate cognitive performance. The university entrance exam scores of the students were taken into consideration to assess their academic performance. We observed a significant "positive" relationship between aerobic capacity and some domains of cognitive performance, especially problem solving (p < 0.05), but we did not find a significant relationship between aerobic capacity and academic performance. Consequently, although we confirmed the existence of a positive effect of high aerobic capacity on cognitive performance stated in the literature, we couldn't confirm this for all cognitive domains or academic performance. These results suggest that more comprehensive studies on this subject are needed.

Relationship Between Achievement Performances of University Entrance Examination and International Baccalaureate Diploma Program: A Case From Turkey

Prior research on the relationship between International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) scores and the university entrance exam scores is limited and varied to a great extent due to the conflicting results in the literature. This study investigates whether there is any relationship between the students’ achievement performance in IBDP and university entrance exam performance. The study revealed that there is no statistically significant correlation between IBDP scores and university entrance exam rank orders. Furthermore, the study showed that the IBDP scores cannot be taken into account as a strong predictor for university entrance exam performance.