TEST TAKING SKILLS AND MATHEMATICAL COMPETENCIES AS PREDICTORS OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

Abstract

The study investigated test taking skills and mathematical competencies as predictors of students' academic achievement in mathematics. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised 2691 SS II students from 59 public schools in Nsukka Education Zone, Enugu State, Nigeria. The study used a sample size of 350 students drawn using simple random sampling. For data collection, the researchers adapted Mathematics Test Taking Skills Scale (MTTSS), and developed the Mathematics Competency Scale (MCS) and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) for the study. The instruments for the study were face validated by three specialists. While MAT was developed using a test blueprint, MTTSS and MCS were further exposed to factor analysis for construct validation. Using Cronbach alpha approach, the reliability estimates of MTTSS and MCS were established to be 0.82 and 0.90, respectively, while the reliability estimate of MAT was established to be 0.86 using the KR-20 formula. Regression analysis was used to answer the research questions, while ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that the proportion of variation in students' achievement in mathematics that may be attributable to their test taking skills and mathematical competencies is jointly and independently significant (p <0.05). Based on this result, it was recommended that relevant education stakeholders should ensure that workshops and seminars are organized for students in order to improve their test taking skills and mathematics competencies.