Inclusion of academic self-efficacy, motivation, and engagement with the pre-university cognitive ability to predict students' university GPA

In recent years, much attention is given by education researchers and accrediting bodies to the role of non-cognitive ability on academic success and potential employment. This research paper aimed to explore the combined influence of non-cognitive and cognitive predictors in forecasting the academic performance of students, measured by university grade point average (GPA), at the end of the second year in university in Saudi Arabia. Results indicate that the key predictors of university GPA were academic achievement test/general aptitude test (AAT/GAT) scores and High School GPA (HSGPA). Pre-university cognitive abilities (AAT, GAT, and HSGPA) were collected from 1,121 participant students. Academic self-efficacy (AS), achievement motivation (AM), academic engagement (AE), and social engagement (SE) of students as key non-cognitive abilities for academic performance were determined. A moderate positive correlation between cognitive factors and AS and AM was found. On the contrary, a weak negative correlation was found with the AE and SA. Using the stepwise regression analysis, AS, AM, and AE together significantly predicted the university GPA over and above AAT, GAT, and HSGPA. A binary logistic regression analysis model was able to predict college of medicine students with a percentage of 68.4% without prior knowledge of university GPA.