Abstract This article presents information on the relation between the scores of elementary and advanced accounting tests in the U.S. In the American Institute of Accountants', a College Accounting testing program, the academic progress of accounting students is evaluated with the Level I Achievement Test at the end of the first year of study, and with the Level II Achievement Test at later stages of training. Results of these tests are compared, to show the extent to which accounting majors, both as individuals and as college groups, tend to rank similarly at the elementary and advanced levels. The findings indicate that the Level I test is useful as a predictor of success in advanced accounting study, as measured by the Level II test, but they also show that there are some substantial differences in the relative rankings on the two levels of the test. A study of the correlations between scores on the Level I and Level II Achievement Tests of 2,192 accounting students in 203 colleges and universities were tested. Forty-two per cent of the students in the third quarter on the Level I test and 22 per cent of those in the second quarter ranked above the median on the Level II test. It appears that a student who ranks between the 50th and the 75th percentiles on the Achievement Test as a first-year student has about twice as good a chance of rating above average on the Level II test.
Robert D. North (Sun,) studied this question.