The undergraduates reading comprehension and their relationship with the performance in the Portuguese language test in college admission exams was analysed as well as the achievement in their first year in college. The Cloze Test was applied to 782 freshmen of eight university courses and, among the main results, the low scoring obtained on the Cloze, inferior to the average of a possible score stood out, indicating that these students present a level of comprehension below the expected for this schooling stage. The positively and statistically meaningful correlation among the Cloze's scores, the academic productivity and the grade in Portuguese language in the college admission exams allow the affirmation that the Cloze test can be used as a predictive instrument of academic performance. It is believed that new researches on the subject will enable an enlargement of knowledge on the abilities required for an adequate formation of the college student.
educational evaluation; cognitive abilities; verbal performance
