BMJ  2006;332:1156 (13 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7550.1156-a

Letter

Selecting medical students

Evidence based admissions procedures for medical students are being tested

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Parry et al's comprehensive summary of admissions processes in English medical schools closes with a gloomy picture of the current state of UK medical student selection.1

There is, in fact, much going on. For example, one medical school has run trials of a personal qualities assessment procedure (PQA) for selecting medical students. In addition, Lumsden et al, whom Parry et al cite in the long version of their paper, centred on the experimental use of PQA in applicants to all of the Scottish medical schools.2 The aim was to gather the scores of prospective medical students, not to inform selection decisions but to form the predictor variables against which to compare the later performance in medical school and ultimately professional progress.

PQA is a portfolio of psychometric tests that we have designed to measure some of the qualities that the literature and many surveys have indicated should be . . . [Full text of this article]

David A Powis, conjoint professor

School of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia, david.powis@newcastle.edu.au

Miles Bore, lecturer, Donald Munro, conjoint senior lecturer

School of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia


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Relevant Article

Admissions processes for five year medical courses at English schools: review
Jayne Parry, Jonathan Mathers, Andrew Stevens, Amanda Parsons, Richard Lilford, Peter Spurgeon, and Hywel Thomas
BMJ 2006 332: 1005-1009. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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