Diagnosis of reading and writing skills of first-year students at the Western Campus, University of Costa Rica, during the year 2022

Abstract

This document presents the main results of the diagnosis carried out on a university student sample made up of 261 first-year students at the Western Campus of the University of Costa Rica during the year 2022. The main objective of the study was to determine the strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension of first-year students in the various courses taught at the aforementioned university campus. Methodologically, the instrument called the Reading and Writing Skills Test (PHL) was applied to 100 men and 161 women, registered in 30 different courses. Among the main results obtained, after their analysis, the following is evident: with regard to strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension, the majority of participants present weaknesses in one, several or all of the attributes evaluated (word, statement, paragraph and text), given that the established mastery probabilities —initial, in consolidation and competent— are present in students from all courses.

Forty percent of the students who took the PHL have an “initial” level of mastery in the four textual categories diagnosed by the test: word, statement, paragraph and text, while 23% have a “competent” mastery in the four categories. It was also determined that there is no relationship between the variables of gender or career and the results obtained in the PHL. That is, the average mastery of the categories does not vary nor does it show statistically significant differences between the group of men and women, or by career