This study investigates the effects of the preparatory year courses, promotion examinations, and exemption criteria on student performance in the first calculus course. It was found that exemption decisions have mainly significant but small practical effects for the larger group of students and more substantial practical effects for the few promoted students. The most important effect appears to be the mathematics courses. Other factors found to be significant are English courses and semester in which students took the courses. The implication of these findings for policy and decision making at the preparatory year program are discussed.

promotion exams, exemption criteria, calculus predictor, preparatory year program, bilingual arabs, English medium.