Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 08832320903449584

Journal of Education for Business

ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20

Student Academic Performance in Undergraduate
Managerial-Accounting Courses
Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry
To cite this article: Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry (2010) Student Academic Performance in
Undergraduate Managerial-Accounting Courses, Journal of Education for Business, 85:6,
311-322
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320903449584

Published online: 13 Feb 2011.

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Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:38

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 85: 311–322, 2010
C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Copyright 
ISSN: 0833-2323
DOI: 10.1080/08832320903449584

Student Academic Performance in Undergraduate
Managerial-Accounting Courses
Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry

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Qassim University, Qassim, Al-Melaida, Saudi Arabia


The author’s purpose was to identify potential factors possibly affecting student performance
in three sequential management-accounting courses: Managerial Accounting (MA), Cost Accounting (CA), and Advanced Managerial Accounting (AMA) within the Saudi Arabian context. The sample, which was used to test the developed hypotheses, included 312 students
whose performance was followed throughout 3 semesters (4, 6, and 8) out of 8. Techniques of
mean comparison and correlation were employed. The results suggest that the preuniversity
accounting background was only found to have significant impact on the AMA course whereas
skill in mathematics was found to affect student performance significantly in the MA course.
It was evidenced that student performance in the MA course and overall was significantly
affected by preuniversity ability, general undergraduate academic capability, and matriculation
year. Student performance in the Financial Accounting course significantly correlated with
performance in the subsequent MA and AMA courses. There is also evidence of a significant
relationship between MA student performance and that of both CA and AMA. The findings of
this study confirmed that the load of weekly registered hours has no negative impact on the student performance. It also suggested that accounting students had outperformed nonaccounting
students in accounting and nonaccounting courses.
Keywords: accounting, student performance, undergraduate

Accounting education has received much attention from researchers in developed nations. A great many studies have
been directed towards accounting education and how it might
be enhanced. However, the research on accounting education
in developing countries is still far behind. Their education

systems are affected by various factors (i.e., culture, politics,
and social factors) and this means that results from accounting education studies can not be always applied to different
nations because each has unique features. The education system in Saudi Arabia differs widely from western education
systems in terms of teaching styles and program types, volumes, and content.
As is the case with many accounting and business departments and schools worldwide facing the problem of weak
student academic performance (cf. Gayle & Michael, 1999;
Lane & Porch, 2002; Shotweel, 1999), the Accounting Department at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia has encountered a severe challenge with its students. During the 15-year

Correspondence should be addressed to Abdulrahman Ali Al-Twaijry,
Qassim University, Accounting Department, Qassim, Al-Melaida 6633,
Saudi Arabia. E-mail: aaltwaijry@gmail.com

period from 1990 to 2005, the number of accounting students whose overall GPA was 4.00 or more out of 5.00 was
fewer than 100 students (less than 10%). A great majority
of accounting students find it rather difficult to understand
managerial accounting courses, and a high percentage (average 35–50%) of students fail in management accounting
courses. As noted by Gracia and Jenkins (2002), academic
failures have huge consequences, both emotionally and financially. The reasons for these failures need to be understood
and appropriate remedies applied.
One possible reason that makes failures in managerial accounting courses different from those in financial accounting

and other business courses is that the managerial courses
are not straightforward. They need critical thinking and a
good background, especially in mathematics, and this warrants further research to suggest ways for improving the student performance in these courses in particular, and accounting programs more generally. Therefore, the question begging an answer is which factors affect student performance
in Managerial Accounting (MA) courses and whether they
are different from those affecting performance in Financial
Accounting (FA) courses as suggested by previous studies.
Because no research was found to tackle this issue within

312

A. A. AL-TWAIJRY

the Arabian environment, a gap exists in the literature. This
study, however, endeavors to identify the potential factors
that may have some effect on student performance generally,
and particularly in three sequential management-accounting
courses. These undergraduate courses are: MA in the second
year (fourth semester), Cost Accounting (CA) in the third
year (sixth semester), and Advanced Managerial Accounting
(AMA) in the fourth year (eighth and final semester). The

outcomes of this study have field implications and applications to help enhance student performance generally and for
these courses specifically.

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Background of Saudi Arabia Business
Educational System
The Saudi Arabian business educational system, although
originally imported from the United States, is somewhat different from those in the West. Public business education in
Saudi Arabia, which represents about 80% of the industry
and is only available for Saudis, is free with the government
paying each student up to 1000 SR per month. Even though
business education is available for both men and women,
they are separated from each other. Students admitted to the
business schools must have a high school degree with an
acceptable GPA (normally above 70%).
The average undergraduate student stay at university is 4
years, in which an average of 140 hr (about 40–45% of them
within the student major) must be studied and passed. Both
Arabic and English are used as a medium of instruction. As

for textbooks, they are mainly published in the West, with
most of them having been translated into Arabic. Teaching styles are mostly a one-way street, which means that
the instructor does almost all the talking, and students are
the audience. Government regulations do not allow female
instructors to teach male students whereas the opposite is
possible but only through video conferencing.
A high percentage (an average of 85%) of the course
assessment is based on the examinations, and the rest (15%)
is based on homework, attendance, and projects. The passing
level is 60%, and when the student cannot get a total of 60
out of 100 points for a course, he or she must restudy the
course; there is no limit for retaking the same course as long
as the GPA is at the required level (2.00 or above out of
5.00). When the GPA goes below 2.00, the student loses his
or her stipend. When the GPA stays below 2.00 for three
(and sometimes five) sequential semesters, the student must
leave the university. In general, business students can find
jobs easily, especially those majoring in accounting.
Literature Review and Hypothesis Development
Accounting education is one of the chief subjects that has

been receiving and continues to receive great attention from
accounting researchers. Many studies have focused on how
to improve the quality of accounting education (i.e., Jackling,
2005; Kramer, Johnson, Crain, & Miller, 2005; Mustafa &

Chiang, 2006). Some research has been directed toward identifying and suggesting solutions to problems and difficulties
confronting accounting students (Booth, Luckett, & Mladenovic, 1999; Davidson, Slotnick, & Waldman, 2000; Gracia &
Jenkins 2002; Lane & Porch 2002). More narrowly, several
studies concentrated on one or more undergraduate or graduate accounting courses. Based on research carried out 18
years ago, Doran, Bouillon, and Smith (1991) found that the
preuniversity accounting knowledge of students negatively
affected their performance in the basic managerial accounting course. Although this was a surprising result, it may not
still be the case nowadays because both accounting academic
programs and preuniversity education systems have changed.
Auyeung (1991), Keef (1992), Rohde and Kavanagh (1996a),
and Lee (1999) searched for possible variables affecting student performance in the Principles of Financial Accounting
(PFA) course. One important finding of these studies was that
the prior university accounting background and the general
academic ability had a significant impact on performance in
PFA.

The impact on student performance and of various entry paths to tertiary education in a second-year accounting
management course was assessed by Jackling and Anderson
(1998). They examined the effect of background features of
some students on their performance in the course. Jackling
and Anderson’s results revealed that part-time students outperformed full-time students, and that both entry qualifications and a student’s general ability together can predict performance in the management course. However, there was no
evidence of any significant effect of preuniversity accounting study, gender, or language background on the course
performance of students. On the other hand, Lane and Porch
(2002) endeavored to investigate the possible impact of background factors of nonspecialist accounting students on their
performance on the UK Level One and Level Two accounting
modules. Multiple regression analysis was employed to evaluate the effect of various explanatory variables. The analysis
outcomes suggest that a student’s accounting background
does not have a significant effect on Level One and Level
Two accounting modules. More recently, Al-Twaijry (2005)
studied the potential effects of various factors on student
performance in the PFA course. The analysis of his sample
(379 students) provided evidence that the significant variables that affect the student performance in the PFA course
are: (a) the preuniversity academic achievement, (b) the preuniversity accounting background, and (c) the preuniversity
mathematics attainment.
These studies have contradictory results regarding the potential effect of the student accounting and general background on the introduction to accounting courses. The possible reasons for that are either the time elapsed between the
studies (some of them older than 15 years) or the cultural

and educational system differences. Because the results of
the majority of these studies supported the thesis that preuniversity academic ability in accounting generally has a strong

PERFORMANCE IN MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING COURSES

effect on accounting courses, the potential impact of the student preuniversity accounting and their general background
and performance on managerial accounting courses can be
hypothesized as follows:

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Hypothesis 1 (H 1 ): The performance of Saudi Arabian
students with a preuniversity accounting acquaintance
would be significantly higher in the university management accounting courses than those without such experience.
H 2 : The performance of Saudi Arabian students with a higher
secondary school GPA would be significantly better
in the university management accounting courses than
those with a lower GPA.

313


affecting student performance in a course on the principles
of management accounting. The most important variable to
help predict student performance was the course grade in the
prerequisite course (Introduction to Financial Accounting).
Considering that financial accounting courses differ in many
aspects from managerial accounting courses, the effect of one
on the other is questionable. To discover if the results reached
can be confirmed or contradicted, the following hypothesis
was tested:
H 5 : The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who perform
better in the financial accounting course would also perform significantly better in the management accounting
courses.

Some research has been concerned with the students’ general performance in business and management schools. For
example, Marcal and Roberts (2000), Brasfield, Harrison,
and McCoy (1993), and Allmen (1996) found that past performance (i.e., at high school) was a good predictor of future
(i.e., university) performance in the fields of management,
business, and economic studies. Similarly, Duff (2004) used
linear regression analyses to test the explanatory power of

students’ approaches to learning, their gender and age, and
their prior academic performance on the subsequent academic achievement. The analysis outcome suggested that
prior academic attainment was the strongest predicting variable of accounting and business economics students’ firstyear academic performance. Based on these findings, the
extent of the impact of student preuniversity performance
and experience on performance at undergraduate business
schools can be tested through the following hypotheses:

Drennan and Rohde (2002) studied the factors expected
to have an effect on student performance in AMA in an
Australian university. They found that the performance of
students whose mother tongue was not English in Introduction to Managerial Accounting was relatively poor whereas
their performance was good in AMA. Also, they found that
the student performance in AMA was better for those who
studied its prerequisite at the same university than for those
who had taken the prerequisite somewhere else. The admission procedure, which was not specifically addressed in this
study, but which can be inferred from its findings, may correlate with the student performance in managerial courses
and overall. In the year 2000, the acceptance procedure and
criteria changed at the School of Business to which the Accounting Department belongs. To test the possible effect of
such changes on academic performance, the following hypothesis was developed:

H 3 : The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students with a higher secondary school GPA
would be significantly better than those with a lower
GPA.
H4 : The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students who graduated from scientific high schools
would be significantly higher than those who graduated
from nonscientific high schools.

H 6 : The performance of Saudi Arabian business students
entering the University after the year 2000 would be
significantly higher than those who entered before the
year 2000.

Fewer studies (i.e., Drennan & Rohde, 2002; Jackling,
Russell, & Anderson, 1994; Rohde & Kavanogh, 1996b)
have focused on managerial accounting courses. Jackling
et al. examined the influence of relaxing the condition of
the prerequisite of basic managerial accounting (basic financial accounting) on the performance on the managerial
accounting course and the influence of a student’s level of
understanding English language on his or her performance
in the basic accounting courses. Their results suggest that,
under certain circumstances, waiving the prerequisite has a
negative impact on student performance. This result, however, could not be generalized. The level of understanding
English was not found to have a significant effect on the
student performance in the basic accounting courses. On the
other hand, Rohde and Kavanagh searched for the factors

Although accounting courses share some similarities, they
sometimes differ widely from each other. The relationship
between student performance in the first year accounting
courses and the following year accounting courses was investigated by Augeung (1991). The results confirm a strong
relationship between student performance in the Introduction
to Accounting course and in the advanced financial accounting course. To extend their analysis to examine if the relation among introduction to management accounting, cost
accounting, and advanced management accounting is also
strong, the following hypothesis was set forth:
H 7 : The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students who perform better in a managerial accounting course would
also significantly perform better in the other managerial
accounting courses.
Other researchers endeavored to identify different factors that may affect student performance in nonaccounting
courses. For example, Anderson, Benjamin, and Fuss (1994)

314

A. A. AL-TWAIJRY

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examined the possible impact of the student’s ability in mathematics in high school on his or her performance in the basic
economics course. They found a significant positive correlation. On the other hand, in an earlier study, Ely and Hittle
(1990) could not find such an effect of student ability in mathematics on the performance in the business finance course.
Because managerial accounting uses mathematics in a deeper
manner than the other accounting courses, it was expected
that students with good understanding of mathematics would
perform better in management accounting courses, and so
the following hypothesis was set forth:
H 8 : The Saudi Arabian undergraduate students achieving better in preuniversity mathematics would perform significantly better in the university management accounting
courses than those whose achievement in mathematics
is poorer.
Mathematical ability can significantly affect graduate and
undergraduate business studies given that many of the courses
at business schools rely on mathematics. Based on that, the
following hypothesis was developed:
H 9 : The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students who have done well in preuniversity mathematics would be significantly higher than those whose
achievement in preuniversity mathematics is poor.
Course scheduling and load could have an effect on the
student performance. The likely influence of course scheduling during the week was investigated by Henebry (1997),
who focused on the financial management course. Henebry’s
results show that the likelihood of passing the course when
it is scheduled for more than one meeting during the week is
higher than when if there is only one long meeting during the
week. The probability of the load effect was examined in a
recent study by Mustafa and Chiang (2006), who suggested
that course materials and course content do affect the quality
of higher education. Because the time and load of the course
are expected to affect performance in the course, also time
and load of all other courses, which can be measured by the
number of registered hours, are expected to negatively affect
the individual courses and overall performance. That is because a high load means less time available for homework
and examination preparation for individual courses and vice
versa. Based on this, the following hypotheses were developed:
H 10 : Saudi Arabian undergraduate students with a small load
would perform significantly better in the university management accounting courses as compared to those with
a large load.
H 11 : The performance of Saudi Arabian undergraduate business students with a small load would be significantly
higher as compared to those with a large load.
Other factors, such as class size, course problems, attendance, student personality, and instructor’s attributes, could

have an effect on a university student’s academic performance. Naser and Peel (1998) found out that the class size,
the instructor’s character and personality, the students’ effort,
and the course problems are the factors most influencing student performance in the Introduction to Accounting course.
Paisey and Paisey (2004) identified potential causes behind
student absences from classes and found a strong positive
relationship between student attendance and performance in
an accounting module. The possible effect of a student’s
personality was studied by Nguyen, Allen, and Fraccastoro
(2005). They used data of 368 undergraduate and graduate
students of a university business course. Anxiety was found
to be positively and significantly predicting overall GPA,
whereas the other personality characteristics such as agreeableness, extroversion, emotionality, and intellect had some
impact on the final course grade and overall GPA. The influence of emotionality and intellect, however, depended on the
student’s gender. Mustafa and Chiang (2006) endeavored to
identify the quality dimensions in higher education and how
they were related to instructor ability and attitudes, course
material, and load and the amount of knowledge provided.
The results, which were based on analyzing 485 questionnaires, suggest that the key factors affecting the quality of
higher education are teacher ability and attitude. The mean
comparison analysis showed that students with a high GPA
perceive course content to be more important for enhancing
education quality, whereas the students with low GPAs perceived that a teacher’s superior performance enhanced course
content.
Although the literature on this subject has highlighted
various factors affecting student performance either in a particular course or in general, other factors that may affect
performance in accounting studies were not discussed. The
term load, the type of high school, the term length and the
student major are further factors that have the potential to
have an impact on accounting student performance, and they
need to be investigated. These variables are addressed and
discussed in this study.

DATA COLLECTION AND DESCRIPTIVE
ANALYSIS
The sample used in this study (312 students) was randomly
selected from students registering during the academic years
2000, 2001, and 2002. These particular years were chosen
because, as the normal stay at the university is 4 years, those
students should have graduated, and they would have studied
all three courses. The data sample was collected from the
students’ present and permanent files kept in the university
registration system, to which I was given access, through
two steps. First, the data regarding the university academic
performance was gathered from the students’ present files,
files which contain information about the students’ academic
transcripts, all semesters’ details, such as registered hours,

315

PERFORMANCE IN MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING COURSES
TABLE 1
Number of Students Who Either Received or
Did Not Receive a Grade in the Course
Status
Received a grade
Did not receive a grade
Total sample

MA

CA

AMA

219
93
312

187
125
312

90
222
312

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Note. Students who did not receive a grade either dropped the
course or had chosen different major (other than accounting) or left
the university.

passed hours, term GPA, overall GPA, and specialization.
Second, the other data were collected from the students’
permanent files, files that contain preuniversity information
such as high school transcripts, date of birth, addresses, and
special needs. Table 1 shows the number of students in the
sample who received a grade in the management accounting
courses.
The MA course is in Level 4 (second year), and all students
in the college must take and pass it. A high percentage (30%
= 93 students) did not receive a grade in that course, which
means that nearly one third of the students in Level 4 had left
the university (withdrawal or dismissal). The CA course is in
Level 6 (third year) and must be taken by business students
in addition to accounting students. The number of students
who received a grade in the CA course was 187 whereas 125
(40%) did not get a grade in the course, which means that 30
(125—93) students (10%) had left the college during their
third year. The AMA course is in Level 8, the last semester
(in the fourth year) and taken only by accounting students.
The total number of students in the sample who graduated in
accounting was only ninety students. Table 2 represents the
number and percentage of the sample students in each grade.
Very few students (< 2%) received an A+ or A in the MA
course, and even fewer (1.6%) in the CA course. Nobody
received an A+ or A in the AMA course. The number of
students who got a B (4 points) or more is 6 (6.4%) in the
MA course, 5 (5.9%) in the CA course, and 2 (2.2%) in the

AMA course. The vast majority of the students who passed
the courses (MA, CA, AMA) received between a D and
C+. On the other hand, 88 students (40%) failed the MA
course, 55 students (29%) failed the CA course, and fewer
(22%) failed the AMA course. This data may suggest that
the performance of students in the management courses did
not follow a normal distribution.
By looking at the term GPA and the overall GPA of the
sample, which is illustrated in Table 3, it is noticeable that
very few students got a GPA of 4.0 or over (between 1% and
3% in all cases). The great majority of the students (between
35% and 72%) had a GPA lower than 2.5. According to the
university rules, a student with an overall GPA lower than
2.00 gets a warning and if the student could not improve his
or her overall GPA to 2.00 or more for a number of terms
(normally three), the student would be asked to leave the
university. The percentage of those students who were at risk
of being dismissed was 18% in Year 2, 5% in Year 3, and
1% in Year 4. Looking at the term performance, I noticed
substantial development because in Term 4 more than 60%
of the sample students had an overall GPA lower than 2.5,
but in Term 8 more than 60% of the sample students had
an overall GPA higher than 2.5. One possible reason of this
is that the more time (terms) a student spends at university,
the better the student understands and the better the student
performs because, with time, the student gets used to the
culture, system, and teaching style of the university, and he
or she also is more mature.
Statistical Analysis and Hypothesis Testing
The hypotheses used in this research were of the alternative
hypothesis format, which suggest an existence of an effect or
relationship between variables. Such an effect or relationship
was examined, and, if the hypothesis is proven, it would
be possible to improve the academic performance by the
affecting variables. The most widely used measurement of
the student’s future academic performance was his or her
past accomplishment. Normally, students with backgrounds
in a subject are expected to do better than others with no

TABLE 2
Number and Percentage of Students in Each Grade
Course Grade
Symbol
A+
A
B+
B
C+
C
D+
D
F

MA (n = 219)

CA (n = 187)

AMA (n = 90)

Points

Frequency

%

Frequency

%

Frequency

%

5
4.75
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1

1
3
4
6
16
19
25
57
88

0.5
1.4
1.8
2.7
7.3
8.7
11.4
26.0
40.2

0
3
3
5
3
16
21
81
55

0.0
1.6
1.6
2.7
1.6
8.6
11.2
43.3
29.4

0
0
1
1
5
17
19
27
20

0.0
0.0
1.1
1.1
5.6
18.9
21.1
30.0
22.2

316

A. A. AL-TWAIJRY
TABLE 3
Student Term and Overall Performance During the Three Academic Terms
MA (n = 219)

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Term GPA

CA (n = 187)

Overall GPA

Term GPA

AMA (n = 90)

Overall GPA

Term GPA

Overall GPA

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

%

Grade

4
41
40
66
68

2
19
18
30
31

3
14
43
119
40

1
6
20
54
19

6
33
60
40
48

3
18
32
21
26

1
17
48
111
10

1
9
26
59
5

2
27
29
19
13

2
30
32
21
14

1
15
30
43
1

1
17
33
48
1

≥ 4.0
3.0–3.99
2.5–2.99
2.0–2.49
< 2.00

background. To examine this case in managerial accounting,
I divided the sample into students who had studied at least
one accounting course at high school and those who had not.
The mean comparison results are disclosed in Table 4.
Students with preuniversity accounting backgrounds performed slightly better (not significantly) in the MA course,
and this, to some extent, contradicts the findings of Doran et
al. (1991) and those of Al-Twaijry (2005), but they are consistent with those of Jackling and Anderson (1998). However,
in the CA course, students without such backgrounds performed slightly better (not significantly). On the other hand,
students who had some experience in accounting before university did significantly (p .20) effect of
the preuniversity accounting background on term and overall GPA. It seems that, although preuniversity accounting
backgrounds may help students understand some topics in
accounting, it is not very helpful, and so it may not be considered as an influencing factor on overall performance in
undergraduate accounting.
On the other hand, students who do well at high school
are also expected to do well at university. To find out to what
extent this was true, I compared the performance of students
with a high school grade of 77.5 or higher to those with a
grade lower than 77.5. This specific point was chosen because, normally, the high school grades of students admitted
to the business school at Qassim University range between 70

and 85, with an average of 77.5. Table 5 reveals the statistical
analysis.
Students who performed better before university did significantly better (p .25 in terms and overall) in the GPAs
between students from scientific high schools and those from
other high schools. Thus H 4 must be rejected. At present, the
Business College at Qassim University prefers students form
scientific high schools to others, but as these findings suggest, the school type should not be considered as a dominant
factor influencing the admission decision. On the other hand,
the admission minimum acceptance level of high school GPA
should be increased.
Probably, management accounting courses use mathematics more than financial accounting, and so students with a better understanding (i.e., higher grades) of mathematics were
expected to do better in these three management courses
(MA, CA, and AMA). Using the mean comparison of grade
in the course between students with a grade in mathematics
equal to 65 (the average grade of the sample students) or
more and others with less than 65 in mathematics, the only
significant (p = .07) difference in means was found in the
MA course, and so we do not reject H 8 for the MA course.
This result is consistent with Al-Twaijry’s (2005) findings
regarding the effect of mathematics achievement on the student performance in financial accounting. In the other two
courses (CA and AMA), and also in the term and overall
GPA, student mathematics skill had no significant effect on

his performance. As a result, H 8 for CA and AMA and also
H 9 cannot be accepted. A possible reason behind the nonsignificant effect of the preuniversity mathematics capability on the school of business student performance, although
mathematics is used in most of the courses, is either that
mathematics content or teaching technique is different.
Development in higher education is dynamic. Admission
procedures, course contents, and syllabi change over time.
To examine whether the changes introduced in the year 2000
helped students in their academic performance and achieve
better grades, we compared the performance (measured by
course grade, passed hours, and GPA) for students enrolled
at the college before the academic year 2000 and those who
enrolled either in year 2000 or after. Table 7 shows the MannWhitney U results.
Students entering the university in the year 2000 or later
performed significantly better (p .20) in all three terms (4, 6, 8). The term GPA was
better for those matriculating in the year 2000 or later, but
the mean differences were not significant except at the 15%
level for Terms 4 and 8 and not significant at all for Term 6.
Therefore, H 6 must be rejected for term performance. On the

TABLE 6
Term and Overall GPAs Means Comparison Using a 77.5 High School Grade Cutoff Point
Course
Term 4 GPA
Term 6 GPA
Term 8 GPA
Overall GPA (Term 4)
Overall GPA (Term 6)
Overall GPA (Term 8)

Grade (%)

n

M

SD

t

Sig. (2-tailed)

≥ 77.50
< 77.50
≥ 77.50
< 77.50
≥ 77.50
< 77.50
≥ 77.50
< 77.50
≥ 77.50
< 77.50
≥ 77.50
< 77.50

105
86
92
71
49
32
105
86
92
71
49
32

2.421
2.223
2.511
2.377
2.696
2.503
2.463
2.271
2.540
2.362
2.670
2.485

0.718
0.714
0.668
0.612
0.649
0.545
0.476
0.410
0.408
0.366
0.420
0.431

1.899

.059

1.320

.189

1.393

.168

2.955

.004

2.889

.004

1.915

.059

318

A. A. AL-TWAIJRY
TABLE 7
Course, Passed Hours, and GPA Means Comparison Using an Academic Year 2000 Cutoff Point

Term

Course

Four
MA
Six
CA
Eight
AMA

Test

Course grade

Passed hours

Term GPA

Overall GPA

Mean Comparison
Mann-Whitney U
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Comparison
Mann-Whitney U
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Comparison
Mann-Whitney U
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

A>B
4589.500
0.015
AB
4124.500
0.833
A>B
986.000
0.879

A>B
4910.50
0.107
A>B
3986.50
0.556
A>B
804.50
0.105

A>B
3685.00
0.000
A>B
3068.00
0.002
A>B
756.00
0.044

Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:38 11 January 2016

A = entered the college on or after the year 2000, B = entered college before year 2000.

other hand, students enrolled in the year 2000 or later generally (overall GPA) performed significantly better (p 15
≤ 15
> 15
≤ 15

69
150
61
126
41
49

2.370
1.840
2.120
1.950
2.200
2.210

1.100
0.949
0.937
0.851
0.765
0.866

3.680

.000

1.228

.221

–0.110

.913

320

A. A. AL-TWAIJRY
TABLE 12
Term GPA Mean Comparison Using a 15-hr Cutoff Point

Variable

Registered hours

n

M

SD

t

Sig. (2-tailed)

> 15
≤ 15
> 15
≤ 15
> 15
≤ 15

69
150
61
126
41
49

2.637
2.215
2.793
2.294
2.812
2.557

0.799
0.667
0.528
0.682
0.597
0.653

4.079

.000

5.031

.000

1.93

.057

Term 4 GPA
Term 6 GPA
Term 8 GPA

Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:38 11 January 2016

FURTHER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this section more findings are presented and discussed.
The relationship between management accounting courses
and the other undergraduate courses reflects the level of consistency between them. The extent of relationship between
the student’s performance in each of the three management
accounting courses and his general (term and all) performance are measured by the Spearman test, the results of
which are shown in Table 13.
Spearman’s results confirm the strong, significant correlations between student performance in the courses (MA,
CA, and AMA) and student performance in the other courses
(term GPA). Also, there are significant (but weaker) correlations between the performance in these individual courses
and the students’ general performance at a university level
(overall GPA). Table 14 shows the correlation results between
four semesters. Term 3 was included because it contains FA,
and the others are Terms 4, 6, and 8.
The strongest relationships were found between student
performance in Term 6 and in Term 8 (Pearson correlation =
. 53). There were also strong relationships between the performance in Terms 3 and 4 (Pearson correlation = .47) and
between performance in Terms 3 and 8 (Person correlation
= .46). However, the correlation between Terms 4 and 6 was
weaker (Pearson correlation = .37). The weakest relationship was between Terms 3 and 6. All these correlations are
significant at the 1% level.
TABLE 13
Correlation (Spearman’s Rho) Between Course
Performance (MA, CA, and AMA)and General
Performance (Term and Overall GPA)
Course
MA

CA

AMA

Variable
Correlation coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
n
Correlation coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
n
Correlation coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed)
n

Term GPA

Overall GPA

.694
.000
219
.605
.000
187
.637
.000
90

.554
.000
219
.357
.000
187
.464
.000
90

Two of three management accounting courses (MA and
CA) are required to be taken nonaccounting students. By
comparing the performance of accounting students to nonaccounting students in these courses, we found that the mean
performance (grade) of accounting students in the MA course
(2.34) was significantly (p = .000) better than that of the
nonaccounting students (1.77). Also the accounting student
performance in the CA course (2.16) was significantly (p
.30) differences, either in the course performance or in
the term GPA. Nevertheless, a significant difference exists
when examining the results for the AMA course. Students
who studied AMA in normal terms performed better (2.27)
than those who had taken the course in summer term (1.20).
In fact, 4 out of 5 (80%) students who studied AMA in the
summer term failed in the course. The general performance
in all term courses (Term GPA) was significantly (p = .086)
higher in the normal terms. One probable reason of the weak
performance in the summer term is the level of absence, and
this, as reported by Paisey and Paisey (2004), has a negative
influence on academic performance. From these results, we
conclude that it would be better not to offer AMA in the
summer term. Otherwise, the absenteeism problem must be
resolved. The case is, however, more flexible in the MA and
CA courses. In other words, there must be a careful selection
of the courses that can be offered during summer semester,
course with which t