Enhancing Academic Monitoring: Examining The Correlation Between The Results Of Progress Test And The Cumulative Grade Point Averages Of Nursing Students

Abstract

Introduction: Progress Tests (PTs) are a key tool in nursing education, designed to assess and track the students' advancement throughout the program. PTs may also be utilised to assess students' readiness for the licensure examination.

Aim: To evaluate the nursing students' performance improvement in the annual progress test and analyse its relationship with their cumulative grade point averages (CGPAs) in the same academic year.

Methods: A longitudinal observational study using a retrospective analysis is used. A convenient sampling method is used to fulfil the aim. Out of the 250 students who completed the nursing program from four cohorts, only 106 nursing graduates met the eligibility criteria.

Result: the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test found a significant difference in the students' PT scores between the third and fourth years (z = -3.671, p = .000) with a small negative effect size r = -0.25213. Despite a notable decrease in the students’ PT median scores in the fourth year (Md = 49) compared to the third year (Md = 51), a substantial majority of students, 86 (81%), demonstrated improvement in their second PT. Moreover, there is a positive correlation between the CGPA of nursing students and their performance in progress tests in the same year [rs (104) = 0.548, p = < .00] for the third year and [rs (104) = 0.519, p = < .001] for the fourth year, both of which were statistically significant.

Conclusion: Progress exams are an effective means of consistently tracking a student's advancement in the programme. The CGPA serves as an indicator of the nursing student's performance in the progress test. Students with higher CGPA also performed better on the PT during the same academic year.