Predictive validity of the personal qualities assessment for selection of medical students in Scotland

Jon DowellUniversity of Dundee, Scotland; JON DOWELL, MD, is a Reader in General Practice and Admissions Convener at Dundee Medical School, Scotland. His main interest is the development of robust, fair and practical selection techniques for undergraduate medicine. He is currently the lead of the UKCAT Research Panel.Correspondence[email protected]

Mary Ann LumsdenUniversity of Glasgow, Scotland; MARY ANN LUMSDEN, MD, is a professor of Gynaecology and Medical Education at the University of Glasgow. She was the Associate dean for Admissions for 8 years during which she was involved in setting up the UKCAT admissions test as well as studies of psychometric testing in the admission process and approaches for widening participation.

David PowisUniversity of Newcastle, Australia; DAVID POWIS, PhD, has been a university lecturer and researcher in physiology and medical education since 1972. At university of Newcastle, Australia, he developed a professional interest, and worked extensively, in the area of medical student selection with the aim of establishing fair principles and appropriate strategy.

Don MunroUniversity of Newcastle, Australia; DON MUNRO, PhD, is a Conjoint (retired) Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia, and a member of the Personal Qualities Assessment research team. His main interests are in personality, testing, psychometrics and job selection.

Miles BoreUniversity of Newcastle, Australia; MILES BORE, PhD, is a Senior Lecture at the University of Newcastle Australia. He lectures and conducts research in the areas of personality, values, morality and psychometrics. Miles is a member of the Personal Qualities Assessment research team and has contributed to the literature on the selection of medical students.

Boikanyo MakubateUniversity of Dundee, Scotland; BOIKANYO MAKUBATE, PhD, is a research assistant in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. His main interests are Medical Statistics and the use of routine datasets to answer clinical questions.

Ben KumwendaUniversity of Dundee, Scotland; BEN KUMWENDA, MRes, is Research Administrator in Medical Education at Dundee University. He was responsible for the development of Scottish Admissions Follow-up Study database and subsequent preparation of the manuscript.

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Abstract

Background: The Personal Qualities Assessment (PQA) was developed to enhance medical student selection by measuring a range of non-cognitive attributes in the applicants to medical school. Applicants to the five Scottish medical schools were invited to pilot the test in 2001 and 2002.

Aims: To evaluate the predictive validity of PQA for selecting medical students.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in which PQA scores were compared with senior year medical school performance.

Results: Consent to access performance markers was obtained from 626 students (61.6% of 1017 entrants in 2002–2003). Linkable Foundation Year (4th) rankings were available for 411 (66%) students and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) rankings for 335 (54%) of those consenting.

Both samples were representative of the original cohort. No significant correlations were detected between separate elements of the PQA assessment and student performance. However, using the algorithm advocated by Powis et al. those defined as ‘non-extreme’ (<±1.5 SD from the cohort mean scores; SD, standard deviation) character types on the involved-detached and on the libertarian–communitarian moral orientation scales were ranked higher in OSCEs (average of 7.5% or 25 out of 335, p = 0.049).

Conclusions: This study was limited by high attrition and basic outcome markers which are insensitive to relevant non-cognitive characteristics. However, it is the largest currently available study of predictive validity for the PQA assessment. There was one finding of significance: that those students who were identified by PQA as ‘not extreme’ on the two personal characteristics scales performed better in an OSCE measure of professionalism. Futures studies are required since psychometric testing for both cognitive and non-cognitive attributes are increasingly used in admission process and these should include more and better measures of professionalism against which to correlate non-cognitive traits.

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Predictive validity of the personal qualities assessment for selection of medical students in Scotland

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