Predicted versus Actual Performance in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry and implications for Student Advising

摘要

Predicting college academic performance is a challenging and controversial proposition, yet most colleges use measures of pre-collcge academic merit and predicted academic performance as part of their admissions process. The high school academic record and exams such as the SAT or ACT are perhaps the most common measures used in this process. Once students are admitted and begin college academics, the usefulness of predictive measures typically is superceded by actual academic performance during the undergraduate experience. These measures are useful in advising students as they develop their academic and career goals and plans. The focus of this report is predictive measures for organic chemistry performance. It is important to note that performance for the purpose of this article is measured by the grade students earned in the organic chemistry course. Grades are not necessarily indicative of the student's understanding of organic chemistry-rather, using grades is one of many possible ways to measure performance. As a related but secondary issue, this report examines the effectiveness of faculty without organic chemistry expertise who teach organic chemistry for the .first time.