School results as predictors of medical school achievement

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Abstract
In Queensland, scores in the final 2 years of secondary school scaled by an independent aptitude test are used to determine admission to tertiary education. The validity of this procedure for medical school enrollment has been investigated. Data were from four cohorts which entered the medical school to commence the course in each of the years 1975-1978, a total of 943 students. In addition to the school subject scores, overall order of merit scores and results of an independent aptitude test used to scale these scores were included with the predictors. Criteria were derived from the grades obtained in the 33 medical school subjects over the 6-year course, or from a broad pass/fail classification. We demonstrate that the school science subjects were of moderate value for prediction of preclinical achievement, but that school English was the most important predictor of performance in the clinical years, which is perhaps an indication of the value of communication skills.