Business students’ perceptions of their readiness for higher education studies and its correlation to academic outcome

This longitudinal study explores the link between students’ ex ante (n=184) and ex post (n=113) appraisals of readiness and outcomes in a business program. Results indicate that perceived readiness does not predict outcome. GPA is the strongest predictor for native Swedish speakers but not for non-native speakers in this sample. All students felt well prepared for HE studies, whereas academic outcome in nominal time indicated many were not. One implication is that teachers need to be aware of student overconfidence and early on show what is expected of them performance wise. This is especially important for underprivileged groups.