More Math in High School Correlates to Better College Science Grades

A recent study gives clear indication that more math in high school does correlate to better science grades in college.

Philip Sadler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Robert Tai of the University of Virginia have completed a survey of 8,474 students from 63 colleges and universities in America. The survey analyzed students taking introductory science courses at those colleges

A rather logical correlation came through the study. Students who took more math courses in high school did better in their college science classes. Perhaps even more notably, those students did so regardless of the science being studied.

One interesting aspect of the study goes back to a long-held debate as to which sciences should be taught first in high school. Traditionally, the order is biology, followed by chemistry, then physics. Many experts have indicated that physics should be the first science topic taught.

In the recent study, the researchers found the following:

Using a traditional 100 point scale, for every year of high school math course that a student took, 1.86 points could be added to the student’s grade in college chemistry. For college biology, each year of math resulted in a 1.84 increase in the student’s grade and for physics, each year of math correlated to a 1.28 point increase in the student’s physics grade.

In contrast, the researchers found that taking high school chemistry added 1.72 points to a students score, but having taken biology or physics had no significant impact on the chemistry score. The results were similar for biology, taking the course in high school added 1.35 points to the student’s college score but having taken chemistry or physics in high school had no significant impact on the college biology score. And the same for physics – you could add 1.32 points for taking physics in high school but taking biology or chemistry in high school had no effect on the college physics grade.

According to the data, there does not appear to be any ammunition for changing the order of the high school science courses. In addition, the correlation with math makes sense but it is of course not a cause and effect type number.

Student interest is of course critical to performance and students who are more interested in math simply could also be more interested in science as well. For more on the study, see the University of Virgina Today site.