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This study represents an attempt to develop a valid criterion for predicting students' performance while in dental school. Dental students' overall grade point averages were partitioned into component measures of relevant basic ability clusters in terms of factor scores. The derived indices were used as criterion variables in simple and multiple correlation and regression analyses, with Dental Admission Test (DAT) and predental college scores as predictors. Results showed that basic science abilities were associated with the preprofessional academic predictors, and manual skills with the DAT Perceptual Motor Ability Test (PMAT) scores. None of the presently available preprofessional predictors, taken singly or together, were correlated sufficiently with the factor‐associated dental science performance or the nonfactor‐associated dental clinical performance for effective prediction. Findings that the development of dental and clinical proficiency at the predoctoral level depends neither on available predictors nor on preprofessional background in the basic sciences have implications for traditional admission policies.

This study uses factor analysis of dental school performance to extract the underlying factors that are inherent in a set of a student's grades and to evaluate whether a given grade may be associated with more than one factor. Results suggest that overall performance is associated with factors that may be identified as basic science, dental science, and manual skill. The dental science factor appears to be developed during professional training and tends to be less clearly defined that the basic science and manual skills factors, respectively, the associations of clinical course grades with the defined factors are generally low, reflecting the complex involvement of dental clinic performance. It is reasonable to speculate, therefore, that dental school grades, when compounded together as overall GPA across the basic abilities of the students, constitute a likely source of variation that accounts for difficulties in prediction studies when they are used as criterion variables.

This paper describes the full-scale engine test techniques used in the “Engine-Operating Sequence V Test” and outlines improvements incorporated in 1962 for test control and oil consumption. A section of the paper is devoted to the effect of motor gasolines on varnish and sludge and their resulting rating levels. Data are also included on test repeatability and reproducibility with the designated reference fuels and reference oils.

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