The Architecture Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, enrols students with background in General Arts, Visual Arts, Science, and Technical Drawing. These students are faced with challenges in design studio during their early years in the course. It has been observed that students, depending on their background, either excel or would have to put in a lot of effort in order to perform well in design studios. Consequently, the aim of the study is to contribute to an improved method of teaching and the realization of students’ needs at design studios. Architectural design studio grades have been monitored within a period of four years for years 1 to 4 at the undergraduate level. The total number of students at the undergraduate level is 328. Data of 315students was used in the study (the number excludes 13 students on deferment and those withdrawn). The data was accessed at the examinations office of the architecture department. Mean studio grades of students’ performance are analysed and presented per class. Moreover, two classes (Years 3 and 4) were asked to rank the various background groups because of their long-term stay in the programme. The process lead to 50% of the students (74 out of 148) giving their votes. The results show the rank of students’ background in conjunction with their performance. Students with Visual Arts and Technical backgrounds performed better (mean studio grades of 64.3% and 61.7%) than the General Science and General Arts groups (mean studio grades of 60.9% and 60.7%). The paper concludes by making recommendations on preliminary courses (sketching and geometry) for students with interest in reading architecture. Tutors are advised to apply different learning styles to weaker groups.
