The academic performance of mature and traditional-entry psychology students at Keele University: A replication study

In this study we report the findings that we obtained when we repeated a study conducted approximately 10 years ago. In the initial study we found that mature students did as well as traditional-entry ones in first-year essays and examinations. However, they did less well initially when writing laboratory reports. In this replication study these results were reversed. This time our mature students did as well as the traditional entry-ones on their laboratory reports, better than the traditional-entry ones at essay writing, but worse on their examinations. Some possible causes for these findings are discussed, and the paper concludes by examining the final degree performance (some two years later) of these two groups of students. Here there were no significant differences between them