Could final year school grades suffice as a predictor for future performance?

Abstract

The performance of three groups of medical students was evaluated at the end of one phase of their studies—after 2 years of premedicine. The aim of the study was to determine whether any of the assessment methods—secondary school grades, entrance examination or test for proficiency in the English language, used for selection of medical students, could reliably predict student performance in the early stages of their education. A significant correlation was found between secondary school grades and the entrance exam on the one hand and grade point average (GPA) on the other. However the results of the test for English proficiency did not correlate with the GPA. It is concluded that the secondary school grade on its own is a good predictor of academic performance in the early stages of medical undergraduate education.