Relationship between Admission GRE Scores and Graduation GPA Scores of Construction Management Graduate Students
ABSTRACT Graduate admission committees in some construction management graduate educational programs in the United States may sometimes require students to take and submit their GRE scores as part of the admission requirements. This is because they tend to believe that the GRE scores could predict the academic performance and success of students in graduate school. This study assessed the predictive ability of admission GRE scores on cumulative GPA scores at graduation of construction management graduate students. The hypothesis was that students who scored high in GRE at the time of admission would attain higher cumulative GPAs at graduation. The independent variables were GRE verbal score, GRE quantitative score, and total GRE score while the dependent variable was the GPA score. SPSS v21 and SAS v9.3 statistical analysis tools facilitated the analysis of the data sourced from three construction management graduate programs in the United States. The results showed weak predictive indices where GRE quantitative score was the better predictor of graduation GPA. Thus, the hypothesis of higher GPAs being associated with higher GRE scores was weakly supported. It was recommended that construction management graduate programs should re evaluate requiring GRE scores as part of their admission criteria.