Pre-admission criteria and pre-clinical achievement: Can they predict medical students performance in the clinical phase?

RATIONAL

Various factors affect medical students' performance during clinical phase. Identifying these factors would help in mentoring weak students and help in selection process for residency programmes.

OBJECTIVE

Our study objective is to evaluate the impact of pre-admission criteria, and pre-clinical grade point average (GPA) on undergraduate medical students' performance during clinical phase.

METHOD

This study has a cross-sectional design that includes fifth- and sixth-year female medical students (71). Data of clinical and pre-clinical GPA in medical school and pre-admission to medical school tests scores were collected.

RESULTS

A significant correlation between clinical GPA with the pre-clinical GPA was observed (p < 0.05). Such significant correlation was not seen with other variables under study. A regression analysis was performed, and the only significant predictor of students clinical performance was the pre-clinical GPA (p < 0.001). However, no significant difference between students' clinical and pre-clinical GPA for both cohorts was observed (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Pre-clinical GPA is strongly correlated with and can predict medical students' performance during clinical years. Our study highlighted the importance of evaluating the academic performances of students in pre-clinical years before they move into clinical years in order to identify weak students to mentor them and monitor their progress.