Relationships between an Early-Stage Spatial Skills Test and Final CS Degree Outcomes

ABSTRACTFour years ago, the authors' institution conducted a spatial skills test with entry level computing students. At the time of writing, these students have just graduated and some agreed to have their academic record over the course of their programme examined. In particular, we wished to discover whether a spatial skills test taken in the students' first year of study was indicative of their final GPA, whether the correlation between grades and spatial ability in their first year rose or declined over the intervening years and to expose the courses in later years of study which most strongly correlated with spatial ability. The correlation with final GPA was high, and appears to grow over the course of their programme. Courses heavily involving new model formulation had higher correlations with spatial ability than ones involving less novel model formulation. While these results are all correlational, we develop an argument that a student's starting spatial ability, or another factor associated with spatial ability, is closely related to their progression and their success in the programme. Given this relationship between early spatial ability and final degree results, we encourage more investigation of spatial skills as a factor of interest in students' progression.