The Relationship of High School Psychology and Natural Science Courses to Performance in a College Introductory Psychology Class

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship between high school psychology and natural science classes and subsequent performance in a college introductory psychology course. After removing the variability due to SAT scores, both high school psychology and high school natural science courses were significantly related to precourse knowledge of psychology. High school psychology was not significantly related to final grades. However, students with strong backgrounds in high school natural sciences obtained higher final grades than students with less preparation.