Correlations between the Results of Tests of Study Prerequisites and School Success

Tests of General Academic Prerequisites (GAP) by SCIO are increasingly used as a tool for entrance examinations to different types of schools. The GAP tests are usually comprised of three parts: verbal, analytical and quantitative sections which test students‘ verbal, logical and mathematical skills. The question remains, however, whether the GAP tests do indeed identify „general academic prerequisites“ and whether there is a correlation between scores in the GAP tests and grade average of students, which is a standard indicator of school success.
This article presents the results of re-search carried out at Gymnasium Orlová. The research sample consisted of 100 senior students. Students were separated into three groups and tested by three different GAP tests made by SCIO. The goal of the research was to determine correlations between scores in the GAP tests and students grades in mathematics, Czech language and overall grade. The correlation between overall scores in the GAP tests and overall grades was medium and negative (correlation coefficients: -0.46; -0.47 and -0.51), correlation between scores in verbal section and grades in Czech language was very low to medium and negative (correlation coefficients: -0.18; -0.43 and -0.51), and correlation between scores in quantitative section and grades in mathematics was low to medium and negative (correlation coefficients: -0.35; -0.42 and-0.44). The average percentile achieved by girls was 49, whilst average percentile of boys was 52. However, in the same period boys were evaluated worse than girls in their school reports (the average grade for girls was 1.606 and average grade for boys 1.996).