IQ, College Major And School Of Origin As Related To The Students Performance

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Introduction

Schools want their students to be superior in their academic performance. Efforts are done and resources are utilized by schools just to make sure that the students received the best education they deserved since best education will prepare them for better job.

Study had shown that school factors affect job performance as manager. As the study of Howard (1986) discovered that performance of a person as a manager was accounted by some factors and among them is college major (which is one of the schooling factor). It is important to know what make students superior in their academic performance, hoping that it could contribute to their performance in their work. Some factors might affect the academic performance of the students. However, those factors still need to be identified. This study intend to answer this problem.

The study is intended to find out whether the following factors significantly contribute to the superior performance of students in their master in management program: (1) IQ, (2) College major, and (3) School of origin. Further, the study intend to discover the extend of the above factors on the superior performance of the students.

One of the main limitation of the study is the sampling technique used. The sampling technique make used of stratified convinience sampling. The use of random sampling is suprior to the convinience sampling. However, by selecting respondents from the same school could eliminate the difference of teaching method and teacher factors that might affect school performance.

Review of Related Studies

Several studies had been done in relation to the performances of students.

The Effect of Intelligence

One factor that had strong effect on academic performance was student intelligence or more specifically known as intelligence quotient (IQ).

The study of Nonis et al. (2005) indicated that College Testing Assessments (ACT) significantly correlate with academic performance of the students. ACT is one of the entrance examination, as it is well known that most of the college entrance examination used by business school measure student intelligent. Another study by Cushing et al. (2004) from a university’s MBA program found out that applicants exhibit a higher correlation between test scores and undergraduate GPAs. This study understate the importance of GMAT (general management admission test) scores as one indicator of IQ in predicting performance of potential MBA (master in business administration) students. However, GMAT as one of the entrance examination as ACT that measure intelligent which according to the study of Nonis et al. (2005) significantly correlated.

Prior Educational Background

Although some of the personal characteristics were found to be related with academic performance, Win & Miller (2005) study discovered that previous schools had impact too on academic performance. The study of Win & Miller (2005) to the first year students at the University of Western Australia discovered that high schools had an impact on the academic performance of students at university beyond students’ own background characteristics. While another study indicated that personality very likely affects academic performance (Conley & Simon, 1993).

In other words, the undergraduate educational background of students entering graduate school then is expected to have effect. The study of Hartnett, Romcke & Yap (2004) on university accounting students discovered that statistically significant relationships were observed between accounting performance and accounting study prior to university. This study was supported by the study of anonymous (1996) that accounting result of a student who studied accounting previously is higher than that of a student who did not study accounting at high school. It seems that the education background of previous study might effect the academic performance of the next education level.

The Effect of other Personal Characteristics

Some studies indicated that personal characteristics of students affect their academic performance. Such personal characteristics as strive for achievement, feeling of inferiority, persistency, and initiative are the personal characteristics students. Each students has their own personal characteristics that might affect their academic performance.

Nonis, et al. (2005) studied factors that could be used to predict academic success. In their study, they discovered some predictors of academic success and most of those predictor were personal characteristics. It was found that College Testing Assessments (ACT) composite score, achievement striving, and feelings of inferiority significantly correlate with academic performance of students taking marketing education. In this study, two personal characteristics was mentioned, achievement striving and feelings of inferiority. Another study by Jaramillo & Spector (2004) on the academic performance of undergraduate marketing students discovered that persistency and initiative are positively related to effort, which is an important antecedent of academic performance. Also the study of Lee, Jamieson & Earley (1996) that achievement striving is positively related to academic performance.

Hypotheses and the Definition of Operational Terms

The following factors significantly contribute to the superior performance of students in the master in management program: IQ, College major, and School of origin. The null hypothesis, those factors have no significant contribution to the superior performance of students in the master in management program.

These are the operasional definition used in this study: IQ or Intelligence Quotion is the intelligence of the students as measured by the IQ test. College Major is the undergraduate major of the students prior to taking the master in management degree. The college major of the students is either business major or non-business major. Includes in business major are major in economics, accounting, and management. While non-business are enginerring, science, law, medical, and other social science majors. School of Origin is the school where the student’s undergraduate come from. It could either be state own college/university or private own college/university.

Methodology

This is a confirmatory, cross-sectional study. It is said confirmatory study since there are several variables need to be confirmed whether significant contribution exist. While it is said also cross-sectional study since the data was taken in the same time.

Stratified convenience sampling method is used. Population is stratified according to the school that offer graduate school in management. Conveniently, a graduate school of management in Jakarta was selected since the data is readily available. Students enrolled in that school from year 2001 to 2006 were selected. They were divided into two groups, those graduated with superior performance, and the other group are those graduated with low performance. The GPA was used as the criterion to consider whether the student belong to the superior or low performance group. Those with GPA of 3.75 or above was considered as superior performance and those with GPA of 3.24 or below was considered as low performance. Forty students have been selected for this study. They were the fulltime students that enroll from the year 2001 to 2006. Twenty students with high performance and another 20 students with low performance which make out of 40 respondents were selected.

Since the data regarding the academic performance, intelligent scores, and previous academic background are available in the registrar office of PPM Graduate School of Management, then data was taken from that office. Permision was asked from the person in-charged. Upon permitted, data was gathered.

Data was analyzed using LOGISTIC REGRESSION method of statistical analysis. SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Science) was used as computing software in data processing. The following steps was conducted: Data was inputed in SPSS worksheet; data was tested for the fitness of the model (the regression model is tested for it’s fitness/acceptance using Hosmer and Lemeshow Test. The regression model is said to be accepted for further analysis when the Hosmer and Lemeshow score is more than 0.10); and data was tested for the significance of the predictive variables (when the model is appropriate, the data regarding the predictive variables was tested. Logistic Regression Analysis is used in testing the predictive variables with the significance level of 0.05 or at the confidence level of 0.95).

Analysis and Interpretation

The Logistic Regression statistical technique is used to test the hypothesis with the significance level () of 0.05 or at the confidence level of 0.95. The model is tested for it’s significant using Hosmer and Lemeshow test. It is said to be accepted for further analysis when the Hosmer and Lemeshow score is more than 0.1.

Data was analyzed using SPSS. The Hosmer and Lemeshow test indicate a signficant (Sig.) value of 0.477 which is far above the minimum requirement of the model to be accepted for further analysis which is 0.1. In other words, the independent/criterion varables can be used to predict the dependent variable.

The significant of the independent variables were tested using the Logistic Regression model.

The result indicates that only VAR2 which is the IQ (Intelligence Quotion) that is significant with significant (Sig.) value of 0.004 which is less than significant level of 0.05. The beta coeficient of VAR2 which is the IQ of the students is known to be 0.116. The other two independent variables are found to be not significant. The significant (Sig.)value of VAR3 which is College Major is 0.314 and the significant (Sig.) value of VAR4 which is School of Origin is 0.501. Their significant values are more than significant level of 0.05 as required.

The null hypothesis that says IQ does not affect performance of students in the Master in Management program is REJECTED. There was a significant affect of students IQ on their academic performance in the Master in Management program. The null hypothesis that says College Major does not affect performance of students in the Master in Management program is ACCEPTED. There was no significant affect of undergraduate college major on their academic performance in the Master of Management program. And, the null hypothesis that says School of Origin does not affect performance of students in the Master in Management program is ACCEPTED. There was no significant affect of undergraduate school of origin on their academic performance in the Master in Management program.

The finding of this study consistent with the study of Nonis et al. (2005) which stated that College Testing Assessments (ACT) significantly correlate with academic performance of the students. This finding will be consistent as long as the assumption that college entrance examination such as ACT used by business school measure student intelligent. Also the study of Cushing et al. (2004) from a university’s MBA program found out that applicants exhibit a higher correlation between test scores and undergraduate GPAs.

Conclusion

The following conclusions are derived from the study: (1) The data support the hypothesis that IQ is a factor that affect the performance of the students in the MM program. (2) The data did not support the hypothesis that undergraduate college major and undergraduate school of origin affect the performance of the students in the MM program. (3) IQ of 130 or more become a single factor that contribute to a superior academic performance in the MM program. Other factors such as the school where the students come from and their major in the undergraduate program did not contribute to superior academic performance in the MM program. (4) MM school seems to put heavy emphasize in its student evaluation on IQ than other quotion such as EQ (emotional quotion) or SQ (spiritual quotion).

It is recommended that: (1) MM school should consider IQ as one of the requirement in selecting students. While undergradute major (whether business or non business) or school of origin (whether from state own or private own school) seems to be not an important factors to be considered. (2) Since MM school still put heavy emphasize on IQ, further study is suggested: (a) whether school performance and/or IQ contribute to the success of the student career; and (b) the effect of EQ (emotional quotion) on the academic performance.

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