Analysis of UTME and Post-UTME scores of Education students at Northwest University Kano-Nigeria

The need to ensure only competent and qualified candidates are admitted into Nigerian Universities and cross-validate the scores of candidates in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are the advances made to justify the introduction of Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) by NigerianUniversities, the controversies surrounding the necessity or otherwise of the Post-UTME informed thisstudy. The study employed the ex-post-facto research design with a sample of 200 students admitted into the Bachelor of Arts, and Sciences Education of NorthwestUniversity, Kano, during the 2013/2014 academic session. Datacollection was carried out personally by the researcher from the official students’ records of the university. The studyrevealed that the students scored significantly (P < 0.05) higher marks in UTME than Post-UTME(mean = 211.09 ± 21.173 and 34.34 ± 9.807, respectively). Also, statistical analyses revealed a significant difference between UTME and Post-UTME scores of the students(P < 0.05), supported by aweak insignificant correlation (r = 0.114) between the two sets of scores. Theeducational implications of these results were highlighted and discussed, and it is recommended, among others, that Post-UTME should be sustain as the means of cross-validating and be the final screening exercisefor admission into the undergraduate programmes of Nigerian Universities.