Paton, Lewis W;
McManus, IC;
Cheung, Kevin Yet Fong;
Smith, Daniel Thomas;
Tiffin, Paul A;
(2022)
Can achievement at medical admission tests predict future performance in postgraduate clinical assessments? A UK-based national cohort study.
BMJ Open
, 12
(2)
, Article e056129. 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056129.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether scores on two undergraduate admissions tests (BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) and University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)) predict performance on the postgraduate Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP) examination, including the clinical examination Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills (PACES). DESIGN: National cohort study. SETTING: Doctors who graduated medical school between 2006 and 2018. PARTICIPANTS: 3045 doctors who had sat BMAT, UCAT and the MRCP. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Passing each section of the MRCP at the first attempt, including the clinical assessment PACES. RESULTS: Several BMAT and UCAT subtest scores displayed incremental predictive validity for performance on the first two (written) parts of the MRCP. Only aptitude and skills on BMAT (OR 1.34, 1.08 to 1.67, p=0.01) and verbal reasoning on UCAT (OR 1.34, 1.04 to 1.71, p=0.02) incrementally predicted passing PACES at the first attempt. CONCLUSIONS: Our results imply that the abilities assessed by aptitude and skills and verbal reasoning may be the most important cognitive attributes, of those routinely assessed at selection, for predicting future clinical performance. Selectors may wish to consider placing particular weight on scales assessing these attributes if they wish to select applicants likely to become more competent clinicians. These results are potentially relevant in an international context too, since many admission tests used globally, such as the Medical College Admission Test, assess similar abilities.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Can achievement at medical admission tests predict future performance in postgraduate clinical assessments? A UK-based national cohort study |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056129 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056129 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > UCL Medical School UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10143753 |
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