Principal Component Analysis of Students Academic Performance

Authors

  • Frank B. K. Twenefour Department of Mathematics and Statistics, School of Applied Science, Takoradi Polytechnic Takoradi
  • Ezekiel N. N. Nortey Department of Statistics University of Ghana Legon, Accra
  • Emmanuel M Baah Department of Mathematics and Statistics School of Applied Science Takoradi Polytechnic Takoradi,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v5i2.715

Keywords:

Academic performance, principal component analysis, relative score index (RSI).

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify a metric for measuring students’ performance in mathematics and statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of a public university in Ghana. Some of the students of the department are of the view that the current grading system used by the Department does not do a good job of distinguishing between the performances of students, as at times students of different academic performance could end up with the same Grade Point Average (GPA), a performance measure. Data for the research which covers the 2012/2013 third year students of the Department were obtained from the university’s student records unit. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the data. Three principal components were retained as rules or indices for the classification of students’ performance. A derivative of the first principal component, RSI, could serve as a new performance measure for the Department as it takes into consideration differences in the raw scores of the students. 

Author Biographies

  • Frank B. K. Twenefour, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, School of Applied Science, Takoradi Polytechnic Takoradi
    I am a lecturer with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Takoradi Polytechnic, Ghana.
  • Ezekiel N. N. Nortey, Department of Statistics University of Ghana Legon, Accra
    Dr. Ezekiel N. N. Nortey is a lecturer at the Department of Statistics, Universsity of Ghana, Legon, Accra.
  • Emmanuel M Baah, Department of Mathematics and Statistics School of Applied Science Takoradi Polytechnic Takoradi,
    Dr. Emmanuel M. Baah is a lecturer and currently the head of the Academic Quality Assurance Unit, Takoradi Polytechnic, Ghana.

References

Everitt, B. S. and Dunn, G. (2001). Applied Multivariate Data Analysis. Arnold/Hodder Headline Group, London, UK.

Hair, J. F. et al. (2006). Multivariate Data Analysis. 6th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA.

Johnson, R. A. and Wichern, D. W. (1992). Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersey, USA.

Nortey, E. N. N. and Aguh, N. (2012). Re-working of Means Testing Tool Report for Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF). SLTF, Accra, Ghana.

Sharma, Subhash (1996). Applied Multivariate Techniques. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., USA.

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Published

2015-02-18

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2015): February

Section

Article

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