The unified state examination and the determinants of academic achievement: Does investment in pre-entry coaching matter?

This paper examines the effects of pre-entry coaching (both in terms of money and efforts) on achievement of Russian high school graduates as measured by the results of the Unified state examination (USE). Using a dataset of students from the 16 biggest Russian cities, which includes information on USE results, family background, school characteristics and patterns on pre-entry training, we estimate the factors which determine the final USE results. Parental education, family income, student’s abilities and whether or not the student graduated from a gymnasium or magnet school are significant predictors of USE results in Russian, Mathematics and the average USE score. Characteristics of pre-entry courses (duration of a program as well as total fee) have positive influence on USE scores, but the effect of this kind of pre-entry training is moderate. Attending classes with tutors has a significant (but still moderate) effect only on the USE score in Russian.