CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND MOCK EXAMINATION SCORES AS PREDICTORS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ONITSHA EDUCATION ZONE, ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Continuous assessment and mock examination scores are key indicators used to evaluate students’ academic progress and readiness for external examinations. They provide a more comprehensive picture of students’ academic performance. This study investigated continuous assessment and mock examination scores as predictors of senior secondary school students’ academic performance in WASSCE in Computer Science in Onitsha Educational Zone of Anambra State. To guide the study, five research questions were answered and five hypotheses tested. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study consisted all 1,117 senior secondary school three students (SS3) that registered for 2024/2025 computer science WASSCE examinations and with a sample of 226 (104 male and 122 female) students determined through multistage sampling procedure. The data was the existing academic records of the students in continuous assessment (CA), mock examination (MOCK) and West Africa Examination Council (WASSCE) scores in computer science, which will be available at the time of the study. The instrument was validated by two experts of which one was from the Department of Science Education and one from Educational Measurement, Evaluation and Research Unit of the Department of Educational Foundations, all from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. There was no reliability of the instruments as the instruments are considered reliable since they were scores gotten from Onitsha Educational Zone. The data collected was analyzed with Pearson Product Moment to answer the research questions while Ordinary Least Square simple and multiple regressions using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that, continuous assessment scores predicted secondary school students’ academic performance in WASSCE Computer Science in Onitsha Education Zone of Anambra State. Again, mock examination scores predicted secondary school students’ academic performance in WASSCE Computer Science in Onitsha Education Zone of Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that, the mock examination questions should be properly moderated by the examination committee in order to ensure that they conform to the standard nature of WASSCE examination questions.