Supervisors info:
Θεοδόσιος Ζαχαριάδης,Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μαθηματικών, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
The present paper examines the academic performance of the first year students of the Mathematical department of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens during the years 2015, 2016 in two mandatory first year courses, namely Calculus I and Linear Algebra I. Initially, we explored the correlation between the students’ performance in those two courses and examined factors that may have affected the students’ performance in these specific courses. In particular, we examined Gender, students’ order of preference for the specific department in the university application form, subjects in which they were examined for University admission and the grades in the subject of mathematics in these exams and finally whether their high school was situated in Athens. Finally, using Simple Linear Regression we investigated the value of the grade in mathematics examination for University entrance, in predicting students’ performance in the above-mentioned courses. The results suggest a strong correlation between the student’s performance in Calculus Ι and Linear Algebra I. The mean grades for men appeared to be higher than those of women, but their grades had significantly greater variance. Students from Athens region did not appear to have a significant advantage, although their grades were consistently slightly higher. Similarly, students that were examined in different subjects during the University admission process did not appear to have a significant difference in performance in the two first-year courses. Finally, although there was significant correlation between the grade in mathematics examination for University entrance and the grades in both courses and Simple Linear Regression ranked the grade as the most significant prediction variable, the prediction value was considerably lower than that found on similar studies.
Keywords:
Calculus, Linear Algebra, University admission criteria, academic success
