The Factors that Influence Mathematics Achievement at the Berbice Campus

MTH 111 is a first year first semester Algebra course for all Natural Sciences students at the Berbice campus. At the first sitting of the course about 50% of the students secure passing grades of 40% and above. The aim of the research was to determine the factors which influence student performance in the course and isolate the best set of predictors. Pearson’s correlation conducted on the data collected from 111 students enrolled on the MTH 111course at the Campus over the academic years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 revealed that prior academic achievement, self-efficacy, academic resources, self-regulation and learning styles were positively correlated to MTH 111 performance at the < .05 level. Multiple regression analysis utilizing the stepwise method indicated that the best set of predictors were prior academic achievement, learning styles and academic resources which accounted for 44.1 % of the variation in MTH 111 performance at the < .05 level.