FACTORS INFLUENCING PUPIL´S SUCCESS RATE IN TESTS THAT FOCUS ON MATHEMATICAL PREPAREDNESS FOR STUDYING AT EIGHT-YEAR GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study looks at factors which influence pupil’s success rate in entrance mathematical preparedness tests for an eight-year general secondary school (which is a parallel to the basic school, it provides a general, academic education while aiming to prepare students for university studies and therefore covering larger range of curriculum, pupils can start attending this school after finishing their fifth year of the basic school). The analysed group consists of fifth and sixth grade pupils attending basic school as well as of the pupils attending the first year of eight-year general secondary school. The research was conducted with the participation of 125 pupils (59 girls and 66 boys). The goal of this study was to find out which of the selected factors (family background, gender, reading literacy level, pupil’s satisfaction with life, used teaching methodology and strategies) notably influences pupil’s mathematical preparedness. For the purpose of this study a general secondary school entrance exam was implemented. This test was extended with rating scales which allowed us to analyse pupil’s ability of self-evaluation. Therefore this study deals with metacognition also. Each test item was classified either as 1 - correct answer or 0 - wrong answer. Because of this type of coding it was possible to interpret the arithmetic mean of the measured values as a suitable score estimation of the p-parameter of the alternative distribution, which represents the probability with which a chosen pupil will answer the question correctly. The results show that the two main factors which influence pupils are parents’ education and reading literacy level. Test examining pupils’ reading literacy level was focused mainly on reading comprehension. This test consisted of one and a half page long text called “The mystery of a giant tooth” followed by 11 questions. On the contrary, gender, pupil’s satisfaction with life and other factors were found to be of no significance.