BMJ 1998;317:1149-1150 ( 24 October )

Education and debate

How to do itSelect medical students

Editorial by Abbasi and Paper p   1111

David Powis, assistant dean, undergraduate education

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, New South Wales 2308, Australia

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

The analysis on p 1111 by McManus of some of the factors affecting whether a candidate is offered a place at medical school in the United Kingdom1 shows clearly that selectors haven't yet got it right.

What follows is a brief guide that might help medical schools and doctors to determine what they want from a selection procedure---that is, what knowledge, skills, and attributes need to be sought in potential medical students, and why. This determination requires data, specifically, on the progress rates of medical students and the reasons for failure or premature withdrawal. With such knowledge the guide may be used to show how admissions committees should devise and operate an appropriately objective student selection procedure.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)


    Assumptions

Medical school admissions procedures are often not selection procedures but an administrative exercise to limit the number of entrants to the number of places available on the course by means of a . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • James, D., Driver, L. (1999). Ethnic and sex differences in selection for admission to Nottingham University Medical School. BMJ 319: 351-352 [Full text]  
  • Abbasi, K. (1998). Is medical school selection discriminatory?. BMJ 317: 1097-1098 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Rural applicants also lose out.
John A J Macleod
bmj.com, 23 Oct 1998 [Full text]
Do medical schools want conformity in their graduates?
Peter Littlejohn
bmj.com, 26 Oct 1998 [Full text]
Mature student intake should be increased
Naseer Ahmad
bmj.com, 28 Oct 1998 [Full text]
Choosing with facts, or fictions ?
B Miller
bmj.com, 29 Oct 1998 [Full text]
Academic qualifications should not be decisive in selecting students
M Vally
bmj.com, 2 Nov 1998 [Full text]
Choosing with fact, or with fiction?
B M Miller
bmj.com, 2 Nov 1998 [Full text]
Secondary school standards remain the key
Andrew D McLean
bmj.com, 2 Nov 1998 [Full text]
How to build evidence in the selection process?
Mayer Brezis
bmj.com, 9 Nov 1998 [Full text]
Comprehensive selection tests : Reliability,Validity and Predictive outcome
Sheena Singh
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]



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