MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE TEST SCORES AS RELATED TO COURSES TAKEN IN HIGH SCHOOL AND OTHER FACTORS

For the 1980 sophomore cohort from High School and Beyond (National Opinion Research Center, 1983a, 1983b), a strong relation was found between senior‐year mathematics achievement test score and the number of high school mathematics courses taken at the level of Algebra I and above. Unexpectedly, the relation was slightly stronger for courses the students reported taking than for courses as recorded on the student's high school transcript. The strength of relation was reduced but remained substantial after a covariance adjustment for student socioeconomic status (SES), sophomore‐year verbal achievement test score, and sophomore‐year mathematics test score. In contrast, the relation between senior‐year science test score and the number of high school science courses taken was far weaker than for mathematics, both before and after covariance adjustment.