Do high school national examination final grades predict undergraduate performance?

Abstract

The university placement system in Kenya places great emphasis on Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Examination. This is the final exam through which high school students are evaluated throughout the country. This study looks into the ability of these examination results to predict university performance using data from a private university in Kenya. Scarce research in the area suggests KCSE offers little value in - predicting university pe1formance. In this study, we test the predictive value of KCSE results on year-by-year university performance and cumulative 4-year performance. The data also allows comparison of KCSE with a basic aptitude test. Results suggests that KCSE results offer some value in predicting university performance. The results also suggest there is little difference in the predictive ability of KCSE on year-on-year pe1formance compared to the cumulative university performance