The academic performance of Pre-Science students in relation to their SPM results

The problem of too many applicants for the limited places in tertiary institutions is a rule rather than exception at present. The Pre-Science course offered by ITM which prepares students for courses in science and engineering also faces the same problem. Traditionally, the criterion of student selection is based on a student’s SPM results in mathematics and sciences plus a minimum of credits in English and Bahasa Malaysia. These are the core subjects relevant to the courses in science and engineering. For students having similar results in the core subjects, the selection becomes difficult for there is no quantitative measure to evaluate the relative importance of these subjects as well as the subsidiary subjects such as Geography, Art, History or Religious Studies. In this paper, an attempt is made to quantify the relative importance of the core as well as the subsidiary subjects using the Multiple Regression technique. The objective of the model is to help identify and thus admit into the Pre-Science course students with better potential to succeed in science and technical courses. It is hoped that such a model when incorporated into the admission system, would provide an empirical basis for the computerised screening and selection procedure for students intake and thereby reduce the student drop-out rate for a more efficient production of science and technical human resource to meet the Country’s Vision 2020.