Factors Related To University Entrance Examination Achievement: A Case Study from Turkey

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between University Entrance Examination achievement and the factors that are socioeconomic status, interest and perception of success, and instructional activities. 2008 University Entrance Examination scores and a Student Questionnaire responded by 10,000 students are used to perform a multiple regression analysis to reveal the relationship between the mentioned factors and the raw scores of Turkishsocial sciences and mathematics-science. The results indicate that 17% of the variability in Turkish-social sciences raw scores and 57% of the variability in mathematics-science raw scores were predicted by the determined factors. Besides, interest and perception of success in Turkish-social sciences and in mathematics-science are positively related to Turkish-social science raw scores and mathematics-science raw scores, respectively. Conversely, in addition to the negative relationship between Turkish-social raw scores and the interest and perception of success in mathematics-science, there is also a negative relationship between the mathematics-science raw scores and the interest and perception of success in Turkish-social science. Teacher-centered activities have a significant positive relationship with only Turkish-social sciences raw scores, though, studentcentered activities have a negative relationship with both raw scores. Socioeconomic status also has a positive relationship with both raw scores.