Effect of Entry Requirement and Secondary School Type on Cumulative Grade Point Average of Students in Taraba State University, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper considered the effect of student's entry requirements, Secondary school type and Cumulative Grade Point Average of the 2014/2015 final year students of the four faculties of the Taraba State University. Primary data was collected through the use of a questionnaire from the respondents of the selected programmes from each faculty. Correlation Analysis was carried out on the students', CGPA's at lower levels, UTME score, SSCE results and Secondary school type. It was discovered that only CGPA at the end of 300 level has significant relationship with CGPA at the current level while the stepwise regression analysis shows that only CGPA at 300 level is the best predictors of students' graduation CGPA all other variables are not significant and regression analysis was used to established models for predicting graduation CGPA. Based on the findings of the study, it can therefore be concluded that entry requirements have no effect in determining the performance of students while at the university. That only CGPA at 300 level has an effect in determining students’ performance. The study therefore recommends, among others, that since UTME scores are poor predictors of student academic performance, Taraba State University should be conducting a POST-UTME examination before giving admissions to students.