ARE UTME AND PUTME GOOD PREDICTORS OF STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN THE UNIVERSITY? THE CASE OF KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY, KADUNA, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper has investigated the extent to which the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Kaduna State University Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (PUTME) are predictors of students’ academic performance in Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria. The data on the student’s scores for JAMB’s UTME, and PUTME, were collected from Kaduna State University’s (KASU) Information Communication Technology and Management Information System. The study also employed field survey using a well-structured questionnaire administered to the students to collect data on their Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) and other information. Purposeful sampling was adopted in selecting 240 students. This study used descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. The study revealed that candidates scored higher in PUTME than in UTME. The mean score of students in PUTME stood at 249.60, which is higher than the UTME mean scores of 208.24. The result of the scores for UTME reveals that the highest mean score has being increasing over the years with the highest individual score being recorded in 2015. The study also revealed a significant relationship between UTME and PUTME at 0.05%. The prediction of students’ CGPA from their performance in UTME and PUTME in KASU reveals that UTME and PUTME are good predictors of students’ final class of degree. In this study, JAMB UTME and KASU PUTME when taken separately, significantly predict student’s CGPAs in KASU. The study concludes that UTME and PUMTE can be described to be the predictors of student’s academic performance in KASU.