An Application of Discriminant Analysis On University Matriculation Examination Scores For Candidates Admitted Into Anamabra State University

Abstract

The study was carried out on the university matriculation examination (UME) scores of candidates admitted in the department of Industrial Chemistry for 2009/2010 session with the aim of using discriminant function to achieve a sharper discrimination between those “accepted” and those not accepted” in the department. The data for this study was collected from the Anambra State University admission office. The data collected were analysed using average scores, Hotellings T² distribution and discriminant analysis.

The result of the analysis showed that the average scores of those candidates accepted using the four university matriculation examination UME) subjects in higher compared to the average score of not accepted candidates. The hotellings T² distribution used showed that the population mean vectors of the two groups (accepted and not accepted candidates) are different. Discriminant function found for ‘accepted’ and ‘not accepted’ candidates and classification rule also used showed that they are candidates that are wrongly classified or misclassified.

Keywords UME scores, mean, hotellings T² distribution, Discriminant analysis, discriminant function, classification rule.