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The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance

BACKGROUND: In Iran, admission to medical school is based solely on the results of the highly competitive, nationwide Konkoor examination. This paper examines the predictive validity of Konkoor scores, alone and in combination with high school grade point averages (hsGPAs), for the academic performa...

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Autores principales: Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin, Nedjat, Saharnaz, Mohammadi, Aeen, Rad, Elaheh Malakan, Majdzadeh, Reza, Monajemi, Farshid, Jamali, Ehsan, Yazdani, Shahryar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3461424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22840211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-12-60
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author Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin
Nedjat, Saharnaz
Mohammadi, Aeen
Rad, Elaheh Malakan
Majdzadeh, Reza
Monajemi, Farshid
Jamali, Ehsan
Yazdani, Shahryar
author_facet Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin
Nedjat, Saharnaz
Mohammadi, Aeen
Rad, Elaheh Malakan
Majdzadeh, Reza
Monajemi, Farshid
Jamali, Ehsan
Yazdani, Shahryar
author_sort Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In Iran, admission to medical school is based solely on the results of the highly competitive, nationwide Konkoor examination. This paper examines the predictive validity of Konkoor scores, alone and in combination with high school grade point averages (hsGPAs), for the academic performance of public medical school students in Iran. METHODS: This study followed the cohort of 2003 matriculants at public medical schools in Iran from entrance through internship. The predictor variables were Konkoor total and subsection scores and hsGPAs. The outcome variables were (1) Comprehensive Basic Sciences Exam (CBSE) scores; (2) Comprehensive Pre-Internship Exam (CPIE) scores; and (3) medical school grade point averages (msGPAs) for the courses taken before internship. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between the selection criteria and academic performance. RESULTS: There were 2126 matriculants (1374 women and 752 men) in 2003. Among the outcome variables, the CBSE had the strongest association with the Konkoor total score (r = 0.473), followed by msGPA (r = 0.339) and the CPIE (r = 0.326). While adding hsGPAs to the Konkoor total score almost doubled the power to predict msGPAs (R(2) = 0.225), it did not have a substantial effect on CBSE or CPIE prediction. CONCLUSIONS: The Konkoor alone, and even in combination with hsGPA, is a relatively poor predictor of medical students’ academic performance, and its predictive validity declines over the academic years of medical school. Care should be taken to develop comprehensive admissions criteria, covering both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, to identify the best applicants to become "good doctors" in the future. The findings of this study can be helpful for policy makers in the medical education field.
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spelling pubmed-34614242012-10-02 The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin Nedjat, Saharnaz Mohammadi, Aeen Rad, Elaheh Malakan Majdzadeh, Reza Monajemi, Farshid Jamali, Ehsan Yazdani, Shahryar BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: In Iran, admission to medical school is based solely on the results of the highly competitive, nationwide Konkoor examination. This paper examines the predictive validity of Konkoor scores, alone and in combination with high school grade point averages (hsGPAs), for the academic performance of public medical school students in Iran. METHODS: This study followed the cohort of 2003 matriculants at public medical schools in Iran from entrance through internship. The predictor variables were Konkoor total and subsection scores and hsGPAs. The outcome variables were (1) Comprehensive Basic Sciences Exam (CBSE) scores; (2) Comprehensive Pre-Internship Exam (CPIE) scores; and (3) medical school grade point averages (msGPAs) for the courses taken before internship. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between the selection criteria and academic performance. RESULTS: There were 2126 matriculants (1374 women and 752 men) in 2003. Among the outcome variables, the CBSE had the strongest association with the Konkoor total score (r = 0.473), followed by msGPA (r = 0.339) and the CPIE (r = 0.326). While adding hsGPAs to the Konkoor total score almost doubled the power to predict msGPAs (R(2) = 0.225), it did not have a substantial effect on CBSE or CPIE prediction. CONCLUSIONS: The Konkoor alone, and even in combination with hsGPA, is a relatively poor predictor of medical students’ academic performance, and its predictive validity declines over the academic years of medical school. Care should be taken to develop comprehensive admissions criteria, covering both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, to identify the best applicants to become "good doctors" in the future. The findings of this study can be helpful for policy makers in the medical education field. BioMed Central 2012-07-28 /pmc/articles/PMC3461424/ /pubmed/22840211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-12-60 Text en Copyright ©2012 Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha, Yasin
Nedjat, Saharnaz
Mohammadi, Aeen
Rad, Elaheh Malakan
Majdzadeh, Reza
Monajemi, Farshid
Jamali, Ehsan
Yazdani, Shahryar
The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title_full The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title_fullStr The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title_full_unstemmed The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title_short The validity of Iran’s national university entrance examination (Konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
title_sort validity of iran’s national university entrance examination (konkoor) for predicting medical students’ academic performance
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3461424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22840211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-12-60
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