Objectives Some dental schools depend on the students’ academic performance for admission purposes. This research aimed at investigating the correlations between dental students’ performance in specific academic courses and their pre‐clinical and clinical counterparts and the correlations between students’ performance in the pre‐clinical practical courses and the clinical courses. Methods Academic and practical pre‐clinical and clinical grades were retrieved for 811 students who graduated from the School of Dentistry, the University of Jordan, between 2016 and 2018. Ten courses (five academic and five practical) were selected. Pearson's rho test was used to calculate the correlations between the courses. Results Statistically significant weak‐to‐moderate positive correlations were found between each academic course and its pre‐clinical or clinical counterparts and between pre‐clinical and clinical courses. A statistically significant positive moderate correlation (p < .001) was found between students’ performance in fourth and fifth year restorative clinics. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that the academic performance could partially predict the practical performance in both the pre‐clinical and clinical courses and that the clinical performance could partially be predicted from the pre‐clinical practical performance. Moreover, students who can successfully perform the required clinical procedures in fourth year will successfully perform the required clinical procedures in fifth year. However, other confounding factors should be taken into consideration such as manual dexterity and artistic skills even though their intellectual abilities are average.

Objectives: In a country where admission to dental schools is based on academic achievement of students, the aim of the study is to investigate the correlation between the practical achievements and the academic performance of dental students. In addition to determining if a correlation exists between dental students' grades in the preclinical courses and their clinical performance. Methods: Academic and preclinical/clinical grades were collected for third, fourth and fifth year students who graduated from the School of Dentistry at The University of Jordan, in 2014, and 2015. Two courses (operative dentistry and fixed prosthodontics) were selected. Correlations comparing academic and practical grades and correlations comparing preclinical and clinical grades were done for the total samples of third, fourth, and fifth year students for each course. Results: Statistically significant weak to moderate positive correlations were found between academic and practical courses in each year and between the practical courses in preclinical and clinical years (P < 0.01). Conclusion: The correlations and its degree indicate that achievement of students in practical dental courses could be partly influenced by their grades in theoretical courses and that their achievement in clinical courses could be partly predicted by their grades in preclinical practical courses. However, other confounding factors such as genuine artistic skills of students, factors related to supervisors of clinical sessions, patients' factors, and tolerability of student to cope with stress of practical or clinical sessions are additional factors that should be considered.

Background: In a country where admission to dental schools is based solely on the cognitive abilities of students, the aim of the study was to investigate the correlation between high school grade point average and graduating academic achievement for dental students. Moreover, determine whether a correlation exists between dental students’ graduating academic achievement and their career choices and job satisfaction.Methods: A five-year retrospective cohort study was conducted at the University of Jordan, involving (828) dental graduates first enrolled between 2010 and 2014. Corre­lations comparing high school grade point average and graduating academic achievement were done for the total sample composed of (736) students. A short survey was constructed to assess the career choices and job satisfaction for recently graduated dentists and correlate them with their graduating academic achievement. Results: Statistically significant but a weak correlation was found between high school grade point average and graduating academic achievement for dental students (p ≤ 0.05). Statistically significant correlations were found between graduating academic achievement and career choices and job satisfaction and between gender and different tested factors.Conclusion: The significant positive correlations between the high school grade point average and graduating academic achievement of our dental students indicate that our school admission system depending on high school grade point average is a valid system although not enough pre-admission criterion. The significant negative correlation between the graduating academic achievement and the career choices and job satisfaction demonstrates the discontent among fresh graduate dentists in Jordan with their career after graduation. This information is required to update the dental school admissions procedures in response to the changing dental educational landscape.