University Admission Grades and Academic Performance of Students in University Course Examinations : A Study of Delta State University , Abraka , Nigeria

This study investigated the relationship between the admission cut-off grades and university course examination grades obtained between two sets of students at the Delta State University, Abraka. The two groups sampled were students reading Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education and those reading Pure Psychology in the Faculty of the Social Sciences. The intention was to find out whether the set of students admitted with higher admission grades also performed better in university courses than those admitted with lower admission grade. The purpose was for the research to have basis for making suggestions and recommendations about the relevance of using different admission grade to place students in different faculties and departments. It was a descriptive study that used a survey design. Data was collected from the scores of the two sets of students in five courses taken in three years. The result indicated that the higher admission cut-off grades did not influence positively the performance of students in university course examinations. The researcher recommended among others that admission score into the different faculties and departments may not be different but be based also on the interest of students to read particular courses, and comparable conditions of service for workers.


Introduction
The study investigated relationship between the admission cut-off marks that qualify students to enter the Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria and their performance in university course examinations.The study set out to find out how two groups of students that entered into two different faculties with two different admission cut-off grades of 45 and 55 performed in their university course examinations.The two faculties sampled were the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of the Social Sciences.The research subjects were those reading Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education and those reading pure Psychology in the Faculty of the Social Sciences.Those in Counselling Psychology entered the university with 45 cut-off admission grade, while those in pure Psychology entered with 55 cut-off admission grade.
The two groups did some courses together under the same lecturer and were examined together.The study was intended to find out if the cut-off admission grade had positive correlation with their performance in university course examinations in 5 courses taken over a period of 3 years.The respondents were not aware that the researcher was carrying out this study.The aim of the study was to know the relevance of admitting students with different admission cutoff grades and thus make appropriate recommendations on the policy.The findings will be used as a basis for drawing conclusion and making generalisation for university admission in Nigeria.

Admission and Performance of Students in University Examination
The issue under investigation is the relationship between admission cut-off grades and performance of students in university course examinations.The review examined findings of various researches related to the study.Saladeen and Murtala (2005) studied admission grades around medical students in various universities and the performance of the students in university courses.The students were those in Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Anambra State University, Awka, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and ten other universities across Nigeria.The results from the study showed that there was no significant correlation between admission grades and scores in university course examinations.In addition, correlation between admission grades and students' performance at 100 level and preclinical sciences also proved not to be significant.They then stated that these results indicate that admission grades are a good predictor of students' performance at pre-clinical sciences.Olaleye and Salami (1997), Barbara and Sylhia (2002), and Adegoke and Moronha (2002) carried out similar studies and found that age is a major variable in the differences found in the performance of students when their admission grades were compared to their performance in university examinations as the students go through the university.

Factors Influencing Academic Performance
The Western Australian Aborigin Child Health Survey (2001) studied the factors that influence academic performance.The health survey identified students' factors and academic performance, maternal and neonatal health, students' physical health and students' social and emotional well-being.The study linked good physical health with academic performance; and the importance of the early years of development as an essential base for later learning, behaviour and health.The research also highlighted that the great majority of physical brain development occurs by the age of three years, and that low birth weight, recurring illness, and chronic malnutrition leads to poor health, which in turn often leads to poor school achievement.
In a similar study, the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) (2003) associated maternal health at birth with later academic performance.Other maternal and neonatal health studied by WAACHS were the effects of use of tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy, percentage of optimal birth weight (POBW) and breast feeding.The two studies showed that there is no significant association between sub-optimal intrauterine growth of children and their subsequent academic performance as students.On breast feeding, the studies found that there was no significant difference in the proportion of academic performance whether they had been breastfed as children or not.However, the finding on students' physical health showed that there is association between students' physical health and academic performance.
The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) (2001) identified nine health issues that relate significantly to academic performance.These were lower life expectancy at birth, low birth weight, poor quality diet, high disease rate such as chronic ear and respiratory infection, and social and emotional wellbeing.Others were substance misuse, adolescent pregnancy, childhood trauma and childhood injuries.
The Western Australian Child Health Survey reported the views of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) (2004).The Educational Research identified seven key principles that were of relevance to students' academic performance.Of all the principles, only two physical health factors were significantly related to academic performance of students.These were speech difficulties and functional limitations.
ACER ( 2004) also studied the relationship between students' social and emotional well-being and academic performance.The study found a high proportion relationship.The factors studied were emotional or behavioural difficulties, negative acceptance by peers, relationship with teachers, conduct problems and hyperactivity among university students.The body also investigated other factors in the university setting.These were language spoken at school and tutorial attendance at school.ACER found significant association between academic performance and the language spoken in the classroom especially when the language spoken is English language as against the aboriginal language in Australia.Students who did tutorial assignments were found to perform higher than those that do not.The research however found no significant association between academic performance and those students that were helped to do their tutorial assignment, neither was significant association found between overall academic performance and students' admission grades (ACER, 2004).

Assessment of University Students' Performance
The method of assessing the performance of students in Nigeria Universities is relatively similar (Saladeen and Murtala, 2005).Saladeen and Murtala (2005) stated that in most first generation universities in Nigeria, such as the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University and the University of Benin, the grade point average system is used to assess students' performance (GPA).The authors state that at the end of every semester, the GPA is calculated for every student, and the cumulative GPA is used to grade the student at the end of the course in the university.The Brochure also states that if a student fails a course in a particular session, such a student is allowed to take the course again as a carry-over; and whatever grade earned is credited to the student.Bean (1990) states some reading habits that can be introduced to fresh students during orientations.The author states that this can help students improve their performance.The habits are as follows: that the student must not be a passive reader, but an active one who must organise information and attempt to answer related questions, that there is need to survey the materials, formulate possible questions, read again, do some recitation and make a review.Bean gave a guide that students should follow to improve performance, thus: that the student should read the introduction to the chapter, look over the major sections and headings and glance at the figures, skim questions, key words and summarise at the end of the chapter.Bean suggested that such a student should create a context for remembering information, generate interest and a sense of what is important, plan study sessions, and set a time for working, which should include breaks.In this study, Bean who guided a set of experimental students for two sessions along these habits found that his subjects performed significantly better than his control group.

Reading Habit as a Factor that Affects Students' Performance in the University
In addition, Biteney (2003) suggests that students must read to understand and recognise important parts of what they study.Abodirin (1998) also added that students learn and practise how to obtain information that is not already within their own experience, while Okoye (1998) added that students must acquire special technical vocabulary and concepts that have not been part of their familiar concepts, especially in the sciences.Mark (1998) made some suggestions on the time to study, which should be early in the evening when the student is still strong, possibly in the home, although Bohino opposed this and suggested that study be done at school because of disturbance at home.
The concept of mental growth was introduced by Vygotsky (1962) and was corroborated by Luma (1976) and Cole (1981).They agreed that as students grow in chronological years in the university, they mature in age and experience and that these may help improve performance.
Wisconsin State Journal and WISC-TY (1995) researched into improving academic achievement among university students.The journal investigated the effect of some variables on academic improvement.These were trained tutors, use of home work, encouraging small class, parents' knowledge of school rules, procedure and expectation, and school recreation activities and sports.The results of this research showed that increased training of tutors, use of tutorial work at school, and increased recreation showed improvement in students' performance, up to 10%, but significant improvement was not witnessed on parents' knowledge of school rules, procedure and expectation.These are variables that may play on relationship between admission grades and examination performance.
Honey ( 2001) and Nelson and Bickel (2001) investigated some strategies for improving academic achievement among university students.These researchers wanted to know how technology can be used to support improved academic achievement, including technology literacy of all students.They found that technology supports improved academic achievement but added that if technology is not used properly, or is not fully integrated into the project at hand, it will gather dust and offer nothing in the way of students' academic performance.Furthermore, Kafui (2005) researched on causes of low academic performance among students and found that several factors cause poor academic performance.These include poor teacher qualification, inadequate supervision of work, poor motive among the teaching staff, poor learning materials, and large class size.In the separate researches carried out by Davies (2000), Bernstein (2008), Lareau (2002) and Lamont (2000), the following were found to be variables that negatively affect academic achievement among undergraduates.They are students' delinquency, adolescent problems such as drugs and substance abuse, stress and depression, problems within the school, family structure, lack of counselling assistance in the school, negative peer influence, and broken home.These are also extraneous variables that affect relationship between admission grades and performance in university examinations.

Research Problem
In Delta state University, Abraka, there is disparity in the admission grades into different faculties and departments.During university examinations, students across these faculties and departments in certain cases sit the same examinations.For example, students in the Faculty of Education studying Counselling Psychology take lectures and sit the same examinations with those in the Faculty of the Social Sciences studying pure Psychology.These two sets of students were admitted with different grades.This is the situation in all Nigerian universities.
This study was intended to investigate the relationship between the admission cut-off grades and university course grades between these two sets of students.the problem of this study, therefore, was "could the performance of students in University course examinations justify the varying admission cut-off marks for the different courses offered in Delta State University, Abraka"?

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study: (i) There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences who sat Research Methods in Psychology.(ii) There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences who sat Introduction to Adolescent Psychology? (iii) There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences that sat Behaviour Problems.(iv) There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences that sat Stress and Coping Psychology.(v) There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences that sat Extremes of Intelligence.

Purpose of Study
The research was intended to ascertain the relationship that exists between admission grades and performance of students in university examinations.The purpose was to know whether students who are admitted with high grades also perform high in their course examinations while they are in the university.The knowledge of this research would indicate the usefulness of the placement of students in university courses, departments and faculties using admission grades.This would justify the usage of this practice when students are being considered for admission.If the correlation was not high, the researcher might recommend a review.
If the practice was left uninvestigated, there would be no way of knowing the justification for the placement of students into different courses using such students' cut-off grades in admission examinations.If there was no justification, other related variables might be recommended for the placement of students in courses, faculties and departments.

Participants
The participants in this study were university students in the Faculty of Education and Faculty of the Social Sciences that take similar courses because of similarity in their area of discipline.These were students reading Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education and those reading pure Psychology in the Faculty of the Social Sciences.These students were admitted with different admission grades, 45 for Counselling Psychology and 55 for pure Psychology.The research used convenience method of sample which was seen to be suitable.

Research Instrument
The admission grades and university course examination grades were the instrument used for the study.These instruments were obtained from records of these participants through a period of three years.Equal number of scores was taken from these two groups of students using the groups' mean scores.It was these mean scores that were related to the groups' admission grades and then analysed.

Procedure
The research was a descriptive survey that used a correlational design.The mean performance of the group of students in each course offered was related to the admission grade in respect of each research question.It was these mean performances that were analysed to test the hypotheses earlier formulated to guide the study.This analysis enabled the researcher to arrive at the conclusion on how the admission grade related with the mean performance of each group of students.

Results
The research investigated the relationship between admission grade and performance of students in university course examinations offered.Five hypotheses were formulated to investigate this.The results showed that of the 5 courses offered jointly by students in the Faculties of Education and the Social Sciences, there was no significant difference in performance in three, while there was significant difference in two.
Hypothesis (i) wanted to know if there was a significant difference in performance of students in Faculty of Education and those in Faculty of the Social Sciences with admission grades of 45 and 55 respectively.The mean score of students in education was 52.73 while that of students in the Social Sciences was 49.15.The t-test method of data analysis showed that the t-calculated value of 3.621 was greater than the t-critical value of 2.000.Hence the null hypothesis was rejected.This implies that there was a significant difference between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Research Methods in Psychology at the 0.05 level of significance.
Hypothesis (ii) wanted to know if there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Introduction to Adolescent Psychology, with admission grades of 45 and 55 respectively.The mean score was 49.565 and 50.854.The t-test method of data analysis showed that the t-calculated value of 5.131 was greater than the t-critical value of 2.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.This showed that there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Introduction to Adolescent Psychology.
Hypothesis (iii) investigated if there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Behaviour Problem, with admission grades of 45 and 55 respectively.The mean scores were 63.22 and 62.78.The t-test method of data analysis showed that the t-calculated value of 0.973 was less than the t-critical value of 2.000.The null hypothesis was accepted.This showed that there was no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Behaviour Problems.
Research Hypothesis (iv) investigated if there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Stress and Coping Psychology, with admission grades of 45 and 55 respectively.The mean scores for each of the two groups were 71.325 and 43.851.The ttest method of data analysis showed that the t-calculated value of 1.040 was less than the t-critical value of 2.000.Hence, the null hypothesis was accepted.This showed that there was no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Stress and Coping Psychology.
Hypothesis (v) wanted to know if there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Extremes of Intelligence, with admission grades of 45 and 55 respectively.The mean scores of each of the groups were 53.84 and 59.36 respectively.The t-test method of data analysis showed that the t-calculated value of 4.743 was greater than the t-critical value of 2.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.This indicated that there was a significant difference in university examination scores between students in the Faculty of Education and those in the Social Sciences in Extremes of Intelligence.

Discussion
The study investigated the correlation between university admission grades and performance of students in university courses taken.The courses investigated were: (i) Research Methods in Psychology The research was conceptually guided by similar studies done by previous researchers.The works of these previous researchers were in the aspects of admission grades and performance of medical students in Australia, the works of Saladeen and Murtala on admission grades and students' performance in ten universities in Nigeria.Others were factors that affect academic performance carried out on Western Australia Aborigines by Western Australia Child Health Survey and academic performance.The Australia Council for Educational Research (ACER) study on admission grade and the effects of social and emotional well-being on performance also guided this work.Other conceptual ideas related to this work were got from the Delta State University Brochure (2012), reading habits and students' performance related to admission grades by Bean (1990), a study of Biteney (2003) on admission grades and performance; similar studies by Honey ( 2001) and Nelson and Bickel (2001) were also relevant in giving this researcher relevant conceptual ideas.
The findings were that there was significant difference in two of the courses, but there was no significant difference in three.In all these 5 courses, student's mean scores were higher in two, but these were not significant; while mean scores were higher in three, with only two of them being significant.This was interpreted to mean that although the admission cut-off mark was higher for students in the Social Sciences, performance did not correlate positively with the higher admission cut-off mark.
The results obtained for hypotheses 1, 2 and 5, agree with the findings of Bean (1990), and that of Biteney (2003).These two researchers found positive correlation between admission grades and performance of students in university course examinations.The works of these two researchers, however, showed a weakness; as the students were not taught and examined by the same lecturer, unlike here where the same lecturer taught and examined the two sets of students.But the results got for hypotheses 3 and 4, say that there were significant difference which indicate negative correlation.These agree with the findings of Saladeen and Murtala (2005) in their study of medical students' admission grades and performance in University examinations in over ten universities in Nigeria.It also agrees with the findings by the Australia Council for Educational Research (ACER), the Australia Council for Education which studied admission grades and effects of social and emotional well-being on performance in the University.

Implication
This research has established that admission cut-off grade may not be a major factor in determining the rate of performance in university examinations.Such other factors as social and emotional well-being of students, reading habits, parental care, recreational activities may determine performance rate.Other factors as health status of students, early childhood experiences, and attendance to tutorial lessons can also affect academic performance at the university.The implication here is that, there is need for more investigations to be carried out on these variables as they may affect performance.

Recommendations
The findings of this research indicated that there was no clear-cut positive relationship between admission cut-off grades and performance of students in university course examinations.The students in the Faculty of the Social Sciences admitted with a higher cut-off mark of 55 did not record superior performance in university course examinations when compared with students in the Faculty of Education admitted with 45 admission cut-off mark.These findings were recorded when these two groups of students did the same courses over a period of 3 years.These findings bring into question what informed the university to fix differing admission cut-off marks for different faculties.The Nigerian society generally looks down on students that read educational courses as they will become teachers after graduation or work in school establishments where salaries and other financial remunerations are low, compared to other sectors of the economy.So, during admission exercises, a very large number of applications is received in faculties outside the Faculty of Education.In the face of this, admission cut-off marks are raised in these other faculties, compared to the Faculty of Education applicants.Consequently, the following recommendations have arisen from this study: (i) The Nigerian economy should be organised in such a way that salaries and other financial benefits to workers are comparable in the different sectors of the economy.
(ii) Only students that have got first degree in other faculties should be admitted to study education.They will come into the university for one academic session, during which they study only courses related to the teaching profession or other related professions, such as Counselling Psychology, Educational Technology, Library Studies and so on.(iii) Only students who have been found to be interested in children and child care should be admitted to the Faculty of Education.(iv) Some extra benefits should be enjoyed by those who want to study in the Faculty of Education, and those who are employed in education professions.

Conclusion
The findings obtained from the research indicate that the higher admission cut-off grades did not influence positively the performance of students in university examinations.With these findings, one may conclude that there is need for education graduate employees to be properly remunerated in terms of salary and other benefits so that students are not discouraged from reading education courses in the university.The insinuation derived from the findings is that students' choice of courses is higher in other faculties than in the Faculty of Education.It is this high rate of applications to read these other courses outside education that makes universities raise admission cut-off grades in these faculties outside education.If employees' salaries are comparable in education-related careers and careers in other sectors of the economy, students will be motivated to apply to read courses in the Faculty of Education, and admission grades will not be lowered in the Faculty of Education.WISC-TV (1995), Academic Achievement.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AcademicAchievement.

Research Hypothesis One
There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in the social science in research method in psychology?  1, shows that t-calculated value of 3.621 was greater than the t-critical value of 2.000.Hence, the null hypothesis was rejected.This implies that there was significant difference between students in the faculty of education and those in the social science in Research Method in Psychology.

Research Hypothesis Two
There is no significant difference in university examination score between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in introduction to Adolescent psychology?  2 indicated that the t-calculated value of 5.131 was greater than the t-critical value of 2.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.This revealed that there was significant difference in university examination score between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in introduction to adolescent psychology.

Hypothesis Three:
There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in behaviour problem?  3, revealed that the t-calculated value of 0.973 was less than the t-critical value of 2.000.However, the null hypothesis was accepted.This showed that there was no significant different in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in behaviour problem.

Research Hypothesis four:
There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and these in social science in stress and coping psychology?  4, shows that the t-calculated value of 1.040 was less than the t-critical value of 2.000.Hence the null hypothesis was accepted.This showed that there was no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in stress and coping psychology.

Research Hypothesis Five
There is no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in extremes of intelligence?5, shows that the t-calculated value of -4.743 was less than the t-critical value of 2.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted.This indicated that there was no significant difference in university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in extremes and intelligence.-.7.82853 -.7.84564 -3.20986 -3.19274

Table 1 :
t -test analysis of University Examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in research method in psychology.

Table 2 :
t-test analysis of university examination score between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in introduction to Adolescent psychology.

Table 3 :
t-test analysis of university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in behaviour problem.

Table 4 :
t-test analysis of university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social studies in stress and coping psychology.

Table 5 :
t-test analysis of university examination scores between students in the faculty of education and those in social science in extremes of intelligence.