Selecting medical students

doi:10.1136/bmj.39517.679977.80

BMJ 2008;336:786 (12 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39517.679977.80

Editorials

Selecting medical students

Tests of cognitive ability are probably the best method at present

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

The selection of the doctors of tomorrow is a subject of constantinterest because it raises questions about ensuring equity,predicting human behaviour, and defining the characteristicsof a good doctor. In the United Kingdom, it costs about £200000 ( ${euro}$ 260 000; $400 000) to train each medical student, but thecost of getting the selection wrong is much greater.

Selection takes place under considerable time pressure—inthe UK around 19 000 applicants must be screened for some 8000places in less than six months, and each applicant may applyto four medical schools. The selection ratio in the United Statesis remarkably similar—around 42% of 42 000 applicantswere successful in 2007, although each student made an averageof 13 applications.

Different specialties have different requirements, but fromour reading of the literature we distil three broad attributesthat doctors should have—cognitive ability (includinglinguistic and mathematical intelligence, . . . [Full text of this article]

Celia A Brown, research fellow, Richard J Lilford, professor of clinical epidemiology

¹ Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT

c.a.brown@bham.ac.uk

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