Investigation of the Predictive Validity of Communication Skills Examination on University Students’ Overall Academic Performance in Tanzania

Abstract

This article is about the Predictive Validity of the University Communication Skills (CS)
examination on the Students’ Overall Academic Performance. It is based on the study which
was conducted at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). The objectives of the study
were: firstly, to determine the extent to which the CS examination predicts the overall
performance expressed in terms of the University GPAs; secondly, to identify whether the
predictive validity varies by sex, type of school, and type of degree programme; and thirdly, to
examine whether the CS examination is a better predictor for the university GPAs than
students’ entry qualifications. The respondents were 358 finalists from six programmes
selected randomly out of the 20 degree programmes at SUA. The findings indicated that the
University CS examination positively predicted the overall students’ performance expressed in
terms of GPAs (r=0.416, p< 0.01). Furthermore, the predictive validity of the CS examination
scores on the University GPAs varied by sex and was higher for males (r=0.483, p<0.01) than
females (r=0.272, p<0.01). Moreover, the CS examination scores predicted the University
GPAs better than the students’ university entry points. However, the type of school attended at
both CSEE and ACSEE levels and type of degree programme enrolled at SUA had
insignificant influence on the predictive validity of the CS examination.