NATIONAL MULTISUBJECT TEST AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Abstract

The article is devoted to an empirical study of the significance of the impact of the NMT factor on the academic performance of higher education students. The authors of the article find out the significance of the influence of previous academic achievements on students' academic performance, in particular, the score obtained at the national entrance examination (ACT and SAT in the USA, ZNO in Ukraine). In the context of war, the NMT format replaces the ZNO format, which requires an appropriate empirical confirmation of the predictive effectiveness of the multisubject test. The hypothesis of the study is that among the psychological factors of academic success of higher education students, the most significant is prior academic achievement (NMT). To test the hypothesis in the academic year 2023-2024, an empirical study was conducted, the sample of which consisted of 92 higher education students of different specialties of full-time study of the first and second years of bachelor's degree at two Ukrainian higher education institutions (Dnipro), aged 17-19 years, with a gender breakdown: women - 47.8 % and men - 52.2 %. The authors used psychological testing and questionnaires using Microsoft Forms as an empirical method of data collection. The authors used the following psychodiagnostic techniques: “Raven's Progressive Matrices”, the adapted Emotional Intelligence Inventory “EmIn”, the adapted Academic Motivation Scale, the adapted ADOR, and the adapted “Revised Perfectionism Scale”. Using linear regression analysis (paired and multiple), the authors find, firstly, that the predictor of NMT has the highest coefficient of determination compared to other predictors, which allows explaining the average academic performance score by almost 31.3%. Secondly, the multiple linear regression model with the NMT predictor has a better explanatory power than the model without it, and the NMT predictor has the highest standardised regression coefficient. Thus, the hypothesis was confirmed.