Longitudinal evaluation of university GPA and real performance of mathematics graduates

Background and Objective: Saudi Arabian university graduates are required to qualify a national examination test related to their field in order to ratify their degrees. The results of mathematics graduate in this exam were not appreciable. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the reasons of low success rate of the students besides having higher Grade Point Averages (GPAs). This research constituted a longitudinal performance analysis of mathematics students who graduated during 2010-2014 from the Department of Mathematics, College of Sciences and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: The study population comprised of 97 graduates who belonged to either government schools or private schools at secondary level and admitted to the University for Bachelor degree, which they qualified. The mathematics skills of these graduates were tested at four levels; firstly, skills before entering to the university; secondly, at the entry levels in the university; thirdly, after graduation from the University and fourthly; during their employment in the various organizations level. A longitudinal, correlative and case study research methods were employed to obtain descriptive statistics such as correlations and multiple regressions analysis. Results: There appeared a significant positive and weak relationship between the high school grades averages and the university GPA. The students who secured good grades in school also secured good grades in university and vice versa. The students who graduated from the government schools performed better in mathematics skills as compared to the students who came out from private schools. There was inflating tendency of grades to the students in university as compared to their actual mathematical skills because the students who obtained 3.0 GPA in the university successively failed even in their seventh attempt to pass compulsory national aptitude test in order to ratify their degrees. Conclusion: It was recommend that the university authorities must devise strategies to linking grades to actual skills of students and tendency to inflate grade must be restricted and a comprehensive study be undertaken at whole of the university level as well as at all universities level to generalize these results.