An Exploratory Study of the Impact of a Pre-University Course on the Academic Performance of Students in Introductory Accounting

This study examines the impact of the Preparation for Tertiary Accounting (PTA) course on students' academic performance in a first-year Accounting course at a South African university. PTA is presented to students before they commence the formal academic first year. Several control variables (such as taking Accounting at school, performance in Mathematics at school, learning self-efficacy, motivation to learn and student motivation) were taken into account to ascertain the impact of PTA on students' performance in the first formal assessment of their first-year Accounting course. Propensity score matching and the Heckman procedure with an instrumental variable were used to compensate for selection bias. The findings show a positive association between attending this pre-university course and academic performance in the first formal assessment