Medical Aptitude Test Research Articles

Predictive power of high school educational attainment and the medical aptitude test for performance during the Bachelor program in human medicine at the University of Bern: a cohort study.

Prior high school educational attainment and medical aptitude tests are two of the most frequently used selection procedures for admission to medical school. Both of these have been shown to correlate with future performance. However, there is a need for further analysis of the combined impact of these two admissions tools and comparison of their predictive value for future performance. At present, successful completion of high school (Matura) and an aptitude test (Eignungstest Medizinstudium Schweiz, EMS; Swiss Aptitude Test in Medicine) are used for admission to all medical schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictors that are most decisive for performance in undergraduate medical education. More precisely, we were interested in the contributions of the Matura grade and the EMS score to explanations of performance in the Bachelor program of Medicine at the University of Bern. Matura grades, EMS score and performance in the Bachelor program of Medicine were collected for 730 students from four cohorts. Of these, 277 graduated from high school with a biology-chemistry major. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted for each study year and type of examination to determine which predictors affected performance during undergraduate medical education. These data show that Matura grades are an important predictor for performance in undergraduate medical education. The EMS score had no impact when the Matura grades were part of the analysis. The biology-chemistry major grade was a predictor for performance in the first year of undergraduate study. From the second academic year onwards, past performance in the bachelor’s program was the best predictor for future performance during undergraduate medical education. Students’ Matura grades predicted their subsequent performance in undergraduate medical education in the bachelor’s program of the University of Bern. In contrast, EMS scores do not explain any additional variance in students’ performance throughout the entire bachelor’s program. These findings suggest a need for rethinking the admission process.

Dr Solbert Permutt, 1925–2012

It is with great sadness that we report to readers of the European Respiratory Journal and members of the European Respiratory Society the passing of Dr Solbert Permutt (fig. 1), who died at the age of 87 years on May 23, 2012, after a protracted battle with oesophageal cancer. As many already appreciate, Sol was one of the giants of respiratory medicine and physiology, and his passing is an immense loss to our community. He was a remarkable individual with an unbounded level of enthusiasm, creativity and inspiration. Those who had the good fortune to know him had their lives influenced in many positive ways. Figure 1– Solbert Permutt, 1925–2012. Sol entered this world on March 6, 1925, in Birmingham, AL, 9 years after his mother had a tubal ligation. At the time, his mother confided that learning of this unwanted pregnancy seemed worse than finding out she had cancer; however, Sol soon became a treasured child, in no small part because of his clearly superior intelligence. In elementary and high school, he was a brilliant but undisciplined student, who cut school to spend time at the local library and earned some spending money by teaching calculus to undergraduates at the University of Alabama. In 1942, after the onset of World War II and a single year as a student at this university, Sol was drafted into the US Army. His high scores on a medical aptitude test caused him to be assigned to the army's medical school programme, where he completed one year of premed at the …

Troubles in Medical Academe

To the Editor.— I would take issue, in part as Dr Hussey has, with what Dr Davis said in his original comments (236:388, 1976). There is no question that many of the leading medical schools, in addition to Harvard, have taken the position that it is their obligation to allow students of minority groups to enter despite lower than usual grade point averages and performances on medical aptitude tests. Such schools feel that every American, despite his or her racial background, should be fully entitled to receive a medical education. Obviously, they realize that tutoring facilities for such students throughout medical school may be necessary, since these students may not have had the opportunity or motivation to acquire the modus operandi to apply themselves consistently. This often stems from the low socioeconomic, cultural, and scientific milieu in which many have lived for long years, coupled with their own minimal expectation

A Study to Develop a Medical Aptitude Test in Korea

A Study to Develop a Medical Aptitude Test in Korea

Medical Aptitude Test

Medical Aptitude Test

A Study of the Predictive Value of the Medical Aptitude Test at Vanderbilt School of Medicine

A Study of the Predictive Value of the Medical Aptitude Test at Vanderbilt School of Medicine

A Report on the Correlation of Medical Aptitude Test Values, Premedical Records, and Freshman Medical Grades for the Class of 1938, at Emory University

A Report on the Correlation of Medical Aptitude Test Values, Premedical Records, and Freshman Medical Grades for the Class of 1938, at Emory University

Report of the Committee to Evaluate the Medical Aptitude Test

Report of the Committee to Evaluate the Medical Aptitude Test

Evaluation of the Medical Aptitude Test

Evaluation of the Medical Aptitude Test

Medical Aptitude Tests for 1931-1932 Preliminary Report

Medical Aptitude Tests for 1931-1932 Preliminary Report