Brief entrance test can predict academic success within first year of study in economics
German researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin found that even a short test can reliably predict students' success within their first year of study in economics—much better than an intelligence test or predictions based on school grades. Motivated by the high number of dropouts in this study domain, the researchers investigated whether and how study success in economics can be predicted reliably already at the beginning of a degree course. They found that a brief entrance test can predict students' domain-specific grades after the first year of study. "This means that we could use a short, standardized entrance test to objectively and validly assess the entry preconditions of prospective students that are relevant to their study progress," according to the project leaders of the study, Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia and Professor Hans Anand Pant.