Teacher doesn't know best

References from schoolteachers are unreliable predictors of students' performance at medical school. Ferguson and colleagues (p 429) followed students over the five years of their medical training and found that the personal statement given in the student's application for medical school predicted aspects of clinical performance, A level results predicted preclinical performance, and scores for conscientiousness consistently related to most aspects of medical training. Behaviours associated with conscientiousness (being organised and methodical) have previously been shown to be linked to job trainability, says the commentary by McManus (p 432), but have less impact on clinical performance, which may require more imaginative and open thinking.

(Credit: JOHN GRIEM/SPL)

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Relevant Article

Pilot study of the roles of personality, references, and personal statements in relation to performance over the five years of a medical degree • Commentary: How to derive causes from correlations in educational studies

Eamonn Ferguson, David James, Fiona O'Hehir, Andrea Sanders, and I C McManus
BMJ 2003 326: 429-432. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]