Non-cognitive selected students do not outperform lottery-admitted students in the pre-clinical stage of medical school.
Medical schools all over the world select applicants using non-cognitive and cognitive criteria. The predictive value of these different types of selection criteria has however never been investigated within the same curriculum while using a control group. We therefore set up a study that enabled us to compare the academic performance of three different admission groups, all composed of school-leaver entry students, and all enrolled in the same Bachelor curriculum: students selected on non-cognitive criteria, students selected on cognitive criteria and students admitted by lottery. First-year GPA and number of course credits (ECTS) at 52 weeks after enrollment of non-cognitive selected students (N = 102), cognitive selected students (N = 92) and lottery-admitted students (N = 356) were analyzed. In addition, chances of dropping out, probability of passing the third-year OSCE, and completing the Bachelor program in 3 years were compared. Although there were no significant differences between the admission groups in first-year GPA, cognitive selected students had obtained significantly more ECTS at 52 weeks and dropped out less often than lottery-admitted students. Probabilities of passing the OSCE and completing the bachelor program in 3 years did not significantly differ between the groups. These findings indicate that the use of only non-cognitive selection criteria is not sufficient to select the best academically performing students, most probably because a minimal cognitive basis is needed to succeed in medical school.
Institute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus MC, Room AE-239, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. s.lucieer@erasmusmc.nl.
Susanna M
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0107-5085
SM
Lucieer
Institute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus MC, Room AE-239, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Karen M
KM
Stegers-Jager
Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Social Sciences, University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University, Middelburg, The Netherlands.
Remy M J P
RM
Rikers
Institute of Medical Education Research Rotterdam, Erasmus MC, Room AE-239, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Axel P N
AP
Themmen
D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D012570:School Admission Criteria; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology
Academic performance; Cognitive selection; Control group; Medical school; Non-cognitive selection