Abstract            Volume:4  Issue-2  Year-2016         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The study was carried out to investigate the predictive validity of students’ scores in Mock Senior School Certificate Examination on their scores in WASSCE in Agricultural Science between 2010/2011-2013/2014 academic sessions in Umuahia Education Zone of Abia State. The study was guided by five research questions and five hypotheses. The study adopted the Descriptive Survey Design which comprised correlational and ex-post facto research design. The population of the study was 7213 which comprised 3896 male students and 3317 female students, while 3627 were students from rural schools and 3586  were from schools in urban areas. The study used a total of forty eight(48) public secondary schools from four(4) Local Government Areas. The study adopted the multi-stage sampling to select twenty three (23) secondary schools. The sample was made up of 3907 students which comprised  2050 male students and 1857 female students,  1641 students from schools in rural areas and  2266 students were from schools in urban areas who sat for the Mock Senior School Certificate  Examination and WASSCE Agricultural Science between 2010/2011–2013/2014 academic sessions. The students were purposively sampled while the proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select schools from the four (4) Local Government Areas. The data for the study was collected using the  Proforma where the researcher copied the students’ scores in Mock SSCE and SSCE conducted by the West African Examination Council(WAEC) .  The research questions were analysed using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient Statistic while the hypotheses were analysed using Simple Linear Regression. The findings revealed that there was a moderate positive correlation which was significant between the students Mock Senior School Examination scores and their Scores in Senior School Certificate Examinations  in  Agricultural Science conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) with  r values of 0.696 at P< 0.05 . It was also revealed that the students Mock Senior School Certificate  Examination scores significantly predicted their Scores in Senior School Certificate Examinations scores in Agricultural Science conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC)  with  R= 0.651  and prediction equation of WASSCE = 1.642 + 0.706 Mock examination. Based on the findings, the study recommended that since the Mock Senior School Certificate Examination is very useful in predicting student’s scores in SSCE, any student who fails the Mock Senior School Certificate Examination should be placed on remedial activities before registering or sitting for WASSCE to avoid failure and Mock Senior School Certificate examination should be continued as a way for preparing students in the WASSCE.

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