Academic performance and its prediction: a view from Estonia

This chapter describes recent changes made in the selection of university students in Estonia. The chapter also includes a description of two research studies that examine the procedures used by the faculty of two major psychology departments in Estonia (the University of Tartu and Tallinn Pedagogical University) to select students. The procedures involve some combination of general knowledge tests, group tasks, and personal interviews. The results suggest that data obtained from group tasks and personal interviews are more highly predictive of GPA than that obtained from the general knowledge tests. Furthermore, the predictive validity of the general knowledge tests depends on the academic program the student intends to enter.