Predicting Students Final GPA Using Decision Trees: A Case Study

Educational data mining is the process of applying data mining tools and techniques to analyze data at educational institutions. In this paper, we used educational data mining to predict students' final GPA based on their grades in previous courses. In our case study, we collected students' transcript data that included their final GPA and their grades in all courses. After pre-processing the data, we applied the J48 decision tree algorithm to discover classification rules. We extracted useful knowledge for final GPA, and identify the most important courses in the students' study plan based on their grades in the mandatory courses.