Prognostic value of university entrance examinations in Scotland.

Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Prognostic value of university entrance examinations in Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/140 (page 23)
    VI GENERAL PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF LEAVING CERTIFICATE RESULTS 1. Prognostic Value of Composite Leaving Certificate Mark Tue task of evaluating Leaving Certificates with different combinations, numbers, and grades of subjects was simplified by the fact that the Committee were concerned only with such Leaving Certificate passes as the Entrance Board accept for admission to degree courses. For this purpose the Entrance Board require passes in four subjects; one subject must be taken from each of the Groups JI, II, III, and the fourth from II, III, or IV. The groups are: I, English; Il. Mathematics, Dynamics, Physical Science; III. Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic; IV. Natural Science, Applied Science, Art, Music. Accordingly, in order to arrive at a Composite Mark, the Committee decided to take four subjects into account, viz. (1) English; (2) the subject in Group II with the highest mark; (3) the subject in Group III with the highest mark; (4) the highest mark among the remaining subjects in any group. A mark on the lower grade was regarded as equivalent to 70 per cent. of the corresponding mark on the higher grade. The method is open to the obvious objection that it makes the questionable assumption that 75 per cent. (say) in one subject is worth as much as 7§ per cent. in another; but without that assumption it was found impossible to evaluate Leaving Certi- ficates with different constituents. The distribution of the Composite Leaving Certificate Marks thus obtained among Honours, Ordinary, and Incomplete degrees is shown in Table VI. Analysis of this table shows that of 43 students with Com- posite Marks of 70 or over, 28 took Honours of the First or Second Class, 10 took Ordinary degrees, 5 discontinued their courses, and there were none who did not complete; whereas of the 62 students with Composite Marks below 50, 2 obtained Honours, 39 took Ordinary degrees, 11 failed to complete, 6