An Investigation of Reading Efficiency Among First Year University Entrants

A survey was carried out on one aspect of reading efficiency among first-year entrants to University College, Galway. The Marino Graded Word Reading Scale and the Advanced Progressive Matrices Set 1 were administered to 714 such students who constituted 85% of the intake. Some of these undergraduates were found to read at a level below what seemed appropriate for University students. For example, nearly 20% had Reading Ages under 16.5 years. Faculty membership, nonverbal intelligence and sex were all highly significant (p<0.001) sources of variance in reading performance. Reading standards were highest in the Faculties of Engineering and Medicine, and lowest in the Commerce Faculty. Those students who were above average for the intake in non-ver-bal intelligence performed better at the reading task than those who were below average. The male students were on average better readers than the female students. Some implications of these results are discussed along with a possible solution to the problem of third-level students with reading deficiencies.