Purpose: The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a relationship existed among the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) score, the mock board dental hygiene examination score (MDHE), early courses average (ECA), and interim (ICA) courses average, for Armstrong Atlantic State University dental hygiene students.
Methods: The sample comprised 130 Armstrong Atlantic State University dental hygiene students between and among the years 1989 and 1995. Eleven dental hygiene courses and a mock examination score were correlated using SAS software. Regression analysis of this data was performed with MINITAB software.
Results: Attempts to predict the dependent variable NBDHE with the ECA, MDHE, ICA, and some combination of these independent variables, were unsuccessful due to an undesirably low R2 value (0.53) and multicollinearity when multiple regression was used. However, logistic regression showed that ECA, and MDHE to a lesser extent, notably affected probability of passing the NBDHE.
Conclusions: Recommendations and conclusions drawn from this study include (a) remediation, (b) tracking student progress in the nine courses determining the ECA to identify weaknesses that make intervention advisable, and (c) providing mentoring for at-risk students.