title: Selection of medical students--are interview evaluations consistent?
abstract: We report an attempt to evaluate the consistency of interviews used in the selection of medical students. We found that when two teams of two or three members each interviewed candidates independently, the difference between marks (on a scale of 0-10) was less than 2.5 in 90% of comparisons and less than 1.4 in 75%. When candidate variation was eliminated by use of televised interviews differences between teams were reduced. We conclude that teams of two or three interviews can evaluate candidates with acceptable consistency. On the other hand, evaluations by individuals are less consistent and probably should not be used for categorical evaluations.
mesh_terms: D003099:College Admission Test; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D013019:South Africa; D013337:Students, Medical; D013690:Television