After admission to UP, Ateneo, La Salle, what comes next?

Thousands of Filipino families were held in suspense in the month of January. Young people of age took college entrance exams some months earlier. By the second week of January, all the results were released.

Based on the number of test applicants, the most sought admission in the nation to college is the University of the Philippines, the state national university. Ateneo and La Salle are also sought highly among young students from high income families. In the latter two private colleges, however, tuition is high and that serves as an effective barrier against the application process for families of modest means.

Applicants who scored high, but who failed to pass the admissions cutoff would eventually enroll for their collegiate studies in other tertiary colleges of the nation.

When they finally go to college for studies, how will these young people perform academically? There are ways to predict this. One basis is the score in the admissions test itself. But there are also other factors that play a role.

“A study of college academic performance.” Some two years ago, I undertook an intensive study of these questions.

My lectures to large classes of students in the introductory Economics at the University of the Philippines provided me with perfect material. Twice a week, I gave a one-hour lecture to my students. On the third day of the week, the large class of 10 sections broke up into discussion meetings of around 25 students led by teaching fellows. Each semester as the course progressed, four tests involving objective questions were given.

With the help of bright assistants and the cooperation of the UP registrar and the dean of admissions, I extended the information on final grades of my students with their academic data and their performance in the UPCAT. I was able to construct an extensive data base of students (almost 1,000 students) during six years of teaching.

“The UPCAT components.” The UPCAT (UP college admissions test) included four tests that rate the applicant’s knowledge of science, mathematics, reading comprehension and proficiency in language. The UPCAT score of the student is determined from these four components. Admission is based on this UPCAT score as the basis for determining the pre-college admissions background of the students.

In addition, other factors were taken into consideration: the student’s academic program, the college unit enrollment, and the high school of graduation. Further, information on high school of graduation provided links to other geographic and income status of the region where it was located (based on census and economic survey data.)

“Some findings: basic educational preparation is critical.” The most important findings of the study showed that preparation in mathematics, science and language understanding and proficiency raised the level of academic performance of the students.

What this meant was that those who entered the university with the highest marks in the UPCAT tend to do well in academic performance.

While this finding was specific to the Economics course that I taught, it could be said that the level of difficulty of the course could be similar to that of many similar courses. It goes without saying that it takes a level of interest and perseverance on the part of the student.

But the subject in question might be any other. Economics is as demanding in learning as any discipline. It requires a combination of good memory, analytical skill, and comprehension. It could be learned better with sufficient foundation of other skills. (The curious reader might “google my name and Economics 11 lectures” to find a recent version of the lectures in the internet.)

It is no wonder that the overall score in UPCAT itself is a good predictor of academic performance of the student. In other words, the skills that made them get admitted to the university made them perform even better in school.

This is so much equivalent to the maxim: good graduates come from good students. The university educational system sharpens this more, but one begins with good materials first.

“Other important results.” Another finding of the study was that female students scored better than male students. Looking for more explanation, female students performed better because they had greater language proficiency than male students.

Is it the case that females study harder or just understood better the nuances of language communication? Perhaps it is both. One could test for instance the proposition that male students as a group are inclined to more physical and mechanical work compared to females.

The field of study of the student appears to matter. Science and engineering students tended to do better than most. But those with straight social science schools (those in the “soft” social sciences) tended to perform poorly with the rest of the students unless they were planning to major in the subject (the economics students did well and perhaps for this reason would continue their economics studies).

But those who enrolled in the course only as an elective subject did poorly compared to those who did it as a required subject in the curriculum. In short, effort of the student in a given course was stronger when there was a definite connection with his or her academic program.

“How important is the high school of graduation?” UP students are selected from a wide range of provincial and regional high schools, both public and private, “science” or non-science or general. The students who entered UP represent their best graduates.

Performance of public science schools graduates was not significantly different from those of private schools. Students from public non-science schools, on the other hand, have lower grades compared to students from private schools. In general, this implies that the country’s talent pool is more randomly distributed across the regions. This is an optimistic finding.

“Significant implications on economic development.” These findings have important implications to educational policies for economic development. Many educators have decried the decline in this country of education in science, mathematics and language in the nation’s high schools.

The nation needs to invest in developing more capacity to teach science, mathematics and language comprehension in the nation’s school system. This is a major finding that has to be stressed as we allocate the scarce public resources we have to education.

International comparisons of countries indicate that those countries that have built a strong foundation in these subjects in their educational systems have done very well in the economic sphere. As a result, their citizens have higher productivity and are technologically proficient. Their per capita incomes also are rising faster.

“Two studies.” This essay is based on two separate studies, with two bright assistants at the UP School of Economics. We presented these studies in the Philippine Economic Society meeting of 2009: (1) Gerardo P. Sicat and Marian Panganiban, “High School Background and Academic Performance” and (2) Gerardo P. Sicat and Kristine Joy S. Briones, “Determinants of Student Performance in the Introductory Economics Course in UP”.

My email is: [email protected]. Visit this site for more information, feedback and commentary: http://econ.upd.edu.ph/gpsicat/