Differential effect of university entrance score on first-year students’ academic performance in Portugal

Figures & data

Table 1. Parameter estimates for variance component models.

	Null model		M1		M2
	Estimate	SE	Estimate	SE	Estimate	SE
Fixed Parameters
Constant	–0.075	0.081	0.027	0.065	0.031	0.067
University entrance score			0.554*	0.028	0.553*	0.030
Male vs. female					–0.128*	0.041
Age >19					0.169*	0.082
Parents’ education: no more than lower secondary					0.118*	0.040
Parents’ education: higher education					–0.045	0.052
Repetition at primary (yes vs. no)					0.164	0.150
Repetition at secondary (yes vs. no)					–0.009	0.062
Random Parameters
Level 2: course
Var(constant)	0.340*	0.068	0.198*	0.043	0.181*	0.040
Level 1: student
Var(constant)	0.661*	0.022	0.552*	0.019	0.542*	0.018
Number of level 2 units: course	54		53		53
Number of level 1 units: student	1940		1826		1797
Estimation procedure	IGLS		IGLS		IGLS
–2*log-likelihood:	4847.948		4223.197		4121.568

(*) Statistically significant at the level of 5%.

Table 2. Parameter estimates for random coefficients models.

	M3		M4		Final
	Estimate	SE	Estimate	SE	Estimate	SE
Fixed Parameters
Constant	0.019	0.066	–0.207	0.073	–0.275	0.062
University entrance score	0.531*	0.038	0.580*	0.046	0.567*	0.037
Male vs. female	–0.131*	0.040	–0.131*	0.040	–0.126*	0.040
Age >19	0.147**	0.082	0.131	0.084	—	—
Parents’ education: no more than lower secondary	0.122*	0.040	0.129*	0.040	0.135*	0.038
Parents’ education: higher education	–0.043	0.051	–0.028	0.052	—	—
Repetition at primary (yes vs. no)	0.179	0.149	0.126	0.147	—	—
Repetition at secondary (yes vs. no)	–0.038	0.062	–0.053	0.062	—	—
Course first choice (yes vs. no)	—	—	0.072**	0.042	0.078**	0.042
University first choice (yes vs. no)	—	—	0.139*	0.045	0.141*	0.045
Area of study: ECO vs. STEM	—	—	–0.178	0.117	—	—
Area of study: HUM vs. STEM	—	—	0.722*	0.134	—	—
Area of study: SOC vs. STEM	—	—	–0.152	0.144	—	—
Area of study: HEALTH vs. STEM	—	—	0.391*	0.197	—	—
Area of study: LAW vs. STEM	—	—	–0.795*	0.281	—	—
Area of study ECO X University entrance score	—	—	–0.036	0.102	—	—
Area of study HUM X University entrance score	—	—	–0.269*	0.107	—	—
Area of study SOC X University entrance score	—	—	–0.083	0.122	—	—
Area of study HEALTH X University entrance score	—	—	0.391	0.242	—	—
Area of study LAW X University entrance score	—	—	0.004	0.191	—	—
Area of study: HUM vs. STEM + ECO + SOC	—	—	—	—	0.791*	0.130
Area of study: HEALTH vs. STEM + ECO + SOC	—	—	—	—	0.424*	0.194
Area of study: LAW vs. STEM + ECO + SOC	—	—	—	—	–0.735*	0.249
Area of study HUM X University entrance score	—	—	—	—	–0.271	0.104
Random Parameters
Level 2: Course
Var(constant)	0.167	0.039	0.061	0.018	0.062	0.018
Cov(university entrance score/constant)	–0.037	0.016	–0.013	0.009	–0.013	0.009
Var(university entrance score)	0.028	0.013	0.019	0.011	0.021	0.011
Level 1: student
Var(constant)	0.530	0.018	0.520	0.018	0.520	0.018
Number of level 2 units: course	53		51		51
Number of level 1 units: student	1797		1746		1747
Estimation procedure	IGLS		IGLS		IGLS
–2*log-likelihood:	4101.203		3890.304		3914.561

(*) Statistically significant at the level of 5%; (**) Statistically significant at the level of 10%.

Figure 1. Graph based on final model estimates.