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Predictive validity of Matura for the psychology study
Gašper Cankar
Full text (pdf) | Views: 18 | Written in Slovene. | Published: March 1, 2000
Abstract: Introducing Matura as a secondary school final examination and as a selection instrument for University changed many things in the Slovenian education sister in the last few years. In this paper an effort was made in order to examine the relationship between Matura as a selection instrument for studying psychology at the university and the entrance selection examination which was in use before Matura. The main question was, which of the two selection principles had a better predictive validity for success in the study of psychology at the University of Ljubljana. The predictors were significantly different in only one of three criteria of success in psychology study, namely entrance examination was proved as a better predictor of the average subject grade in the first year of study. As expected, predictive validity improved when the success in the secondary school subject 'psychology' was added as an additional predictor. It should be pointed out however, that the prediction was made on the selected sample, without those candidates that did not succeed to enter the study of psychology (usually only 1/4 of applicants enter the study); it is difficult to draw very accurate conclusions from the study which was conducted on a suchrestricted sample.
Keywords: Matura, admission examinations, psychology, student selection, predictive validity, Slovenia
