Abstract

GOMEZ-LOPEZ, Víctor Manuel et al. Correlation between the entrance exam and the academic performance at the end of the medical career. Educ Med Super [online]. 2012, vol.26, n.4, pp. 502-513. ISSN 0864-2141.

Objective: to determine the correlation and the predictive level of the entrance examination to the medical studies with the academic performance at the end of the 8th semester of the career. Methods: a retrospective correlational study was carried out in 121 medical graduates. The academic performance was operatively defined as the average mark achieved by each of the students at the end of the 8th semester. At the entrance examination, six areas are assessed, namely Biology, general culture, Spanish, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry, which were all regarded as predictive variables. The simple linear regression analysis used the average mark achieved at the entrance examination as independent variable and the average mark at the end of the 8th semester as the dependent variable; the multivariate analysis was based on the multiple linear regression. Results: the highest average mark and the highest mark at the entrance examination were found in Mathematics, whereas the lowest results were seen in Physics. The correlation between the general average from the entrance test and the academic performance at the end of the 8th semester amounted to 0.409 (p < 0.01), so the determination coefficient was 0.167. Conclusions: the entrance exam should be basically focused on Biology, Spanish, Mathematics and Chemistry, since these are the areas of knowledge where the correlation reached statistically significant results.

Keywords : correlation; academic performance; entrance exam; medical students.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )