High School Grades are not Reliable Predictors of Academic Performance in Undergraduate Medical School: A Study from a Saudi Medical School
Salman Yousuf Guraya and Mohamed Adnan ZolalyDepartment of Surgery, College of Medicine Taibah University, Almadinah Almunawwarah Saudi Arabia.
Abstract: There have been conflicting reports about the predictive validity of High School Grades (HSG) in determining the academic performance of the students during the medical course. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive value of HSG in validating the academic success of the medical students in the pre-clinical and clinical years of the College of Medicine Taibah University (CMTU) Almadinah Almunawwarah Saudi Arabia. The HSG, Grade Average (GPA) of the pre-clinical and clinical years of the students entering the CMTU during the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 were analysed. The data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) version 19.0. The relation between the HSG (independent) variable and the pre-clinical and clinical GPA (dependent) variable was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and linear regression analyses. Chi-squared statistics were applied for categorical variables. A total of 240 students (122 females and 118 males) data was retrieved for analysis. There was no statistically significant difference in HSG of male and female students but there was significant difference between the GPA of male and female students at pre-clinical and clinical in favour of the female students (P= 0.00). Chi-square analysis illustrated that GPA of pre-clinical and clinical years was not associated with the HSG. The analysis also showed a statistically significant positive correlation between the pre-clinical and clinical year performance of the entire cohort (p= 0.00). 2-tailed Pearson correlation reported no positive correlation between HSG, and pre-clinical and clinical GPA, while there was a strongly positive correlation between pre-clinical and clinical GPA at the medical school. The study concludes that HSG, considered as an important pre-admission variable in the medical school, is not a predictor of academic performance in the medical school.
Keywords: High school grades; medical school GPA; medical course; academic performance Back to TOC