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14.10: SAT and College GPA

  • Page ID
    29004
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    Learning Objectives

    • Predicting college GPA from high school scores


    Research conducted by

    Thomas W. MacFarland

    Case study prepared by

    Emily Zitek

    Overview

    When deciding whether to admit an applicant, colleges take lots of factors, such as grades, sports, activities, leadership positions, awards, teacher recommendations, and test scores, into consideration. Using SAT scores as a basis of whether to admit a student or not has created some controversy. Among other things, people question whether the SATs are fair and whether they predict college performance.

    This study examines the SAT and GPA information of \(105\) students who graduated from a state university with a B.S. in computer science. Using the grades and test scores from high school, can you predict a student's college grades?

    Questions to Answer

    Can the math and verbal SAT scores be used to predict college GPA? Are the high school and college GPAs related?

    Design Issues

    The conclusions from this study should not be generalized to students of other majors.

    Descriptions of Variables

    Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Description of Variables
    Variable Description
    high_GPA High school grade point average
    math_SAT Math SAT score
    verb_SAT Verbal SAT score
    comp_GPA Computer science grade point average
    univ_GPA Overall university grade point average

    Data Files

    SAT.xls

    Want a job? Hand over your SAT results! Is the SAT a fair test?

    References

    • None

    This page titled 14.10: SAT and College GPA is shared under a Public Domain license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Lane via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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