Abstract:
Data obtained from a sample of New South Wales high school students were used to investigate the relationships among standardised Year 7 numeracy and reading tests, a measure of general schoolwork effort taken at Year 10, and Mathematics and English scores in a state-wide, compulsory Year 10 examination. A correlation analysis showed that all the measures were positively and significantly related. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the relevant Year 7 test result contributed to a considerable amount of the explained variance in the two Year 10 examination scores. Effort also contributed significantly to the explained variance in the Mathematics score. Implications for researchers, as well as school personnel, are considered.