Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Australia.
Med Teach. 2013 Apr;35(4):295-300. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2012.746451. Epub 2012 Dec 11.
To investigate whether commercial coaching affects performance in the Undergraduate Medical and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT).
The effect of coaching on the UMAT scores of 402 final high school students applying for medicine was examined using t-tests and multiple regression analyses that controlled for academic performance, high school type and gender.
Over half (56.2%) of the participants had enrolled in commercial coaching. Coaching had no influence on UMAT Section 1 or 2, even after controlling for academic performance, gender and type of high school. UMAT Section 3 was significantly higher for coached students, but this was only the case for high ability students. Coaching had a slight negative effect for lower ability students. Those attending academically selective high school also had higher UMAT scores.
The results have implications for the fairness and validity of the UMAT. The differential effect of coaching possibly occurred because high academic ability students are able to learn solution rules for non-verbal tests. We propose that the effect of school type relates to a competitive culture that drives extended test practice in academically selective schools.
研究商业辅导是否会影响本科生医学和健康科学入学考试（UMAT）的成绩。
采用 t 检验和多元回归分析，控制学业成绩、高中类型和性别，考察了 402 名申请医学专业的应届高中毕业生参加辅导对 UMAT 成绩的影响。
超过一半（56.2%）的参与者参加了商业辅导。即使在控制学业成绩、性别和高中类型后，辅导对 UMAT 第 1 部分和第 2 部分均没有影响。对于能力较高的学生， coached 学生的 UMAT 第 3 部分分数明显更高，但这只是在这种情况下。对于能力较低的学生，辅导有轻微的负面影响。就读于学术选拔性高中的学生 UMAT 成绩也更高。
研究结果对 UMAT 的公平性和有效性提出了挑战。辅导的差异影响可能是因为高学术能力的学生能够学习非言语测试的解题规则。我们提出，学校类型的影响与竞争文化有关，这种竞争文化促使在学术选拔性学校中进行更多的测试练习。
