有關留級是否有助於提升學生的成績，在過去研究文獻中，仍處於莫衷一是的情形。本研究以澳門15歲學生PISA 2009閱讀素養成績為例，探討留級制度對閱讀素養成績的影響，並分析導致留級的原因。透過統計分析經濟合作暨發展組織（Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD）所釋出之澳門學生PISA 2009資料，本研究發現，當學生留級經驗愈多，閱讀素養的成績有愈低的趨勢，而且就算是就讀同一個年級，有留級經驗學生的閱讀素養成績還是低於無留級經驗的學生。基本上，男生的留級機率比女生要來得高，而低社經背景學生留級的可能性也比較高一點，其中，文化資本的擁有量是關鍵。在控制所有背景變項與文化資本變項後，學生每多一次留級經驗，閱讀素養成績會下降約40分。建議後續研究或可實際追蹤留級者在留級之前與留級之後的成績差異，亦可分析過去留級經驗是否對升到下一教育階段有影響。

With regard to the function of “grade repetition,” the results of the past research are far from consistent. Using the dataset, PISA 2009 of 15-year-old students in Macau, the study aims to analyze the effects of grade repetition on their scores of reading literacy as well as look into the possible reasons for grade repetition. The findings suggest that the more years of grade repetition a given student has, the lower scores of reading literacy s/he has. Even for the students at the same school grades, students who have the experience of grade repetition perform lower than those who do not have that experience. In addition, “gender” and “social class” serve as the paramount factors for grade repetition. Specifically, boys are more likely to repeat grades than girls; students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to repeat grades than their higher SES counterparts, which is highly associated with the amount of cultural capital possessed. Controlling for the variables of background and cultural capital, the research shows that experiencing one year of grade repetition will decrease the score of reading literacy by 40 points. The future researchers can track the academic performance of students who repeat grades as well as whether this experience would influence their chance of entering the next educational levels.