Pretest in an Introductory Finance Course: Value Added?

Abstract

Performance in finance has previously been shown to be affected by performance in prerequisite courses. In this study, the authors hypothesized that student performance in the introductory finance course would be affected by the knowledge brought to the course as measured on a quantitative pretest given at the beginning of the course. They conclude that performance is a function of the quantitative knowledge brought to the course. The results suggest that pretesting for quantitative knowledge may be a good indicator of performance in the introductory finance course and provide students with information to help them target additional work early in the course to offset such deficiencies.

Keywords:

• Performance
• Prerequisite
• Pretest

Notes

*df = 142 for all t values;

**df = 4, 138 for all F values.