THE DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF PRE-ENTRY EXAMINATIONSON STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN THREE UNIVERSITY TYPES IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Tertiary institution admissions are regulated by statutory exam councils. Despite high pre-entry examination scores, inadequate academic achievement and examination malpractice prompted this study, which aimed, to examine the differential predictive validity of pre-entry examination on students' academic achievement in three university types in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey design of an ex-post-facto type and used a multi-stage sampling technique to select the two thousand and seventy-five (2,075) participants for this study. The date used for the analysis were UTME scores and CGPA from the first-semester examination of the 2016/2017 academic session. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data at 0.05 level of significance, using the SPSS 27 version. The findings from this study revealed significant contributions of UTME and PUTME scores to academic achievement in federal (R2 adj = .158; F(2,879)= 83.389; p < .001), State (R2 adj = .032; F(2,855)= 15.362; p < .001), and private (R2 adj = .058; F(2,332)= 11.220; p < .001), universities. In each of the Universities, the UTME scores are the most potent in contributing to academic achievement followed by the PUTME scores. Thus, UTME and PUTME scores relatively contributed to the CGPA of undergraduates irrespective of University ownership category. On the basis of the findings, it was concluded that there is a distinct predictive contributions of PUTME assessments and the critical role of standardized entry examinations like UTME in higher education. It is recommended that universities in Nigeria should continue utilizing PUTME as a supplementary assessment, ensuring examination quality through expert involvement in test preparation and conduct. Keywords: Predictive Validity, UTME, PUTME, Academic Achievement, Proprietary Universities.