Better Late than Never? The Relation of Registration Date to Class Performance.

Abstract

This study investigated whether students who register for classes earlier perform better. Student registration date and time was recorded for five undergraduate psychology classes from the beginning of pre-registration through the last day to add a course--88 data collection points. The major dependent variable was students' course performance. Correlational results for the total sample (n = 253) indicated a significant inverse relation between registration latency (i.e., length of time waited before registering) and course grade, course average, and semester GPA (all p ********** A considerable body of evidence supports the relation between personality variables and academic performance (e.g., Busato, Prins, Elshout, & Hamaker, 2000; Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2003; Conard, 2006; Gray & Watson, 2002; Wolfe & Johnson, 1995). One of the Big Five personality characteristics that has proven a viable predictor of academic achievement is conscientiousness (e.g., Conard, 2006; Oswald, Schmitt, Kim, Ramsay, & Gillespie, 2004; Wolfe & Johnson, 1995). Conscientious individuals are characterized as hardworking, ambitious, energetic, [and] persevering, which are certainly qualities that one might expect to contribute to academic success (McCrae & Costa, 2001, p. 187). In addition, Conard (2006) found that class attendance, a behavioral indicator of conscientiousness, was also a significant predictor of course performance and GPA. Conversely, academic procrastination has been demonstrated to be related inversely to academic achievement (e.g., Moon & Illingworth, 2005). The present study was based on these two lines of research, as well as the authors' nonsystematic observations over many years that academically superior students tend to request advising appointments during the initial days of the advising process so that they can register for the next semester at the earliest opportunity (i.e., during pre-registration for continuing students or summer orientation for incoming freshmen). We hypothesized that registering earlier for classes (i.e., a shorter registration latency) is a behavioral indicator of conscientiousness and non-procrastination; therefore, we predicted that students who register for classes earlier would perform significantly better in those classes than students with a longer registration latency. Method Participants We tracked registration in five Spring 2006 semester psychology classes at Stephen F. Austin State University, a mid-sized public university in Texas. One class was at the first-year level (PSY 153: Human Sexuality, n = 74); three were at the second- to third-year level (PSY 320: Personality, n=74;PSY361: Behavior Modification, n = 40; PSY 375: Abnormal Psychology, n = 45); and one was at the fourth-year level (PSY 420: History and Systems of Psychology, n = 20). Two hundred fifty-three students (over 2% of the university's undergraduate student population) were tracked in the study. Procedure Student registration date and time in each of the five classes were recorded from the beginning of pre-registration through the last day students were permitted to add a course during the first week of the semester. This process yielded a set of 88 discrete data collection points. These data were collected and analyzed by the fourth author, who had no contact with the students. The other three authors were the instructors for the classes included in the study. Fortunately for the purposes of the study, faculty members are generally oblivious to their students' date of registration for their classes; they are presented only with an alphabetical class roster on the first day of the semester which gives no indication of the students' initial course registration date. …