Towards improved student placement and preparation methods on information technologies post-secondary education

In this article we present the results of a pilot programme for student placement on the university, comprised of a preparation course, the GCE Ordinary level test in Computing, which students perform afterwards as a placement test, and a post-course questionnaire. The aim of the research programme is to identify weaknesses in the student placement tests and set the road map for improved first-time entrant placement and preparation. The study shows that common placement tests are far from giving strong predictions and they should be complemented with other metrics, such as high school grades or social factors. Test outcomes show that placement test results per se do not yield enough data to predict student success. However, we discovered it as a quite helpful tool for revealing anomalies at the institutional and methodological level, such as very different outcomes among campuses of the same university, or remarkable difficulty to answer certain questions. In order to enhance student placement accuracy and preparation for university, these issues will need to be addressed in forthcoming research.