The predictive strength of entry grades and biographical factors on the academic and clinical performance of physiotherapy students

Abstract

Appropriate admission criteria are required when selecting students for physiotherapy training. Analysis was undertaken individually on three cohorts from the Cardiff (UK) School of Physiotherapy to examine the relationship between academic entry grades and academic and clinical performance on the course. Some moderately strong correlations were found, but no entry criteria predicted course performance across all three years. Also, the number of correlations declined in each successive year. Unlike other studies, no decline in predictive strength between first and final year scores occurred. Analysis of student age and gender variables compared with final degree classification also had non-significant results. Discriminant function analysis further supported the findings of low predictive ability. Despite the weak predictive strength of academic grades found in this and other studies, they continue to be used as the main admission criteria for physiotherapy courses. The need for the identification of factors which do have useful predictive strength is discussed.