Success in ninth grade is essential to a student's success throughout high school. Many high schools retain the traditional science course sequence of teaching biology first to ninth graders who may or may not be cognitively ready for today's biology content. A few school districts in Georgia are offering a flexible science course sequence in the ninth grade, using test scores or other data to determine the course in which a student will be most likely to be successful. This study used regression analysis to determine whether seventh grade life science Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores are an effective predictor of success in ninth grade biology as measured by the biology End-of-Course Test (EOCT). The analysis indicated a strong positive correlation between life science CRCT scores and biology EOCT scores. The regression equation provides a method to predict students' estimated biology EOCT score and academic success in that course. This gives educators the ability to guide students to the course of science study at which they are likely to be most successful.