Offer to Review

This study investigated the effects of physics students’ mathematical background on academic achievement in physics related courses in the Federal University of Education Pankshin, Plateau State, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study comprised all science students of the 2025 academic session with a total population of 2,176 students. A sample of 550 students consisting of 250 male and 300 female students was used for the study. Historical data such as students’ Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) grades in Mathematics and their academic achievement scores in physics related courses were used for data collection. Mean and variance were used to answer the research questions while t-test for unrelated samples was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that students with high mathematical background had higher mean achievement scores in physics related courses than students with low mathematical background. However, the difference was not statistically significant. The findings also showed that male and female students with high mathematical background performed better than their counterparts with low mathematical background, although no significant difference existed between the groups. The study concluded that mathematical background plays an important role in students’ achievement in physics related courses, even though the statistical difference was insignificant. It was recommended that students should improve their mathematical competency to enhance their understanding and performance in physics related courses.