Diagnostic Test in College Algebra for Freshman Non-Education Students of Westmead International School Input to Proposed Remedial Activities

The major thrust of this study is to develop a diagnostic test in college algebra to know the level of performance in College Algebra of non – education freshman students of Westmead International School through the use of a diagnostic test. The researcher used the descriptive method of research. The level of performance of freshman non – education students of Westmead International School in Algebraic operation has a mean of 80.66 with the highest score of 88 percent and lowest score of 68, while 22 or 31.43 percent had an average performance ranging from 79 – 84. This indicates that students had average mathematical skills and knowledge acquired from their mathematics foundation during high school. The level of performance of freshman non – education students of Westmead International School in arithmetic operation has 77.78 of the mean score with the highest score of 94 and lowest score of 68, which indicates that the students have difficulties in some areas in arithmetic operations. There was a significant relationship between mathematics foundation and the level of performance of the students. The output made by the researcher was a set of Remedial Activities in College Algebra, which is composed of different topics based on the result of the study and on the suggestions of the college instructors of Westmead International School based on their observation. The topics were operation on integers, operation involving polynomials, and special products. It was recommended that the freshman college students need to take the diagnostic test in College Algebra to determine their level of performance. If they fail in the diagnostic test, they will take Math Plus (Basic Mathematics) instead of College Algebra. The students with good performance in the diagnostic test will take College Algebra.

Keywords – Diagnostic Test, Remedial Teaching, Assessment of Learning.