Admission Grades as Predictors of Medical Students’ Academic Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Admission to medical school is competitive, and different countries use various tests in addition to high school grades to minimize selection bias. A few studies have been conducted to evaluate the usefulness of these tests as predictors for students’ academic performance. In this article, we aimed to assess factors that influenced students’ grades in medical school. Methods: A cross-sectional study included all students who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Jazan University between 2018 and 2020. Scores of the included participants were extracted from the registry of Jazan University, and additional questions about study habits were completed by the included students. Descriptive, univariate, and multivariate analyses were performed for the factors that impacted academic performance. Results: There were 331 included candidates, and the majority of them were female (53%). About 60% of the participants were medical residents at the time of the study, and 40% were interns. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that grades in high school and the pre-requisite tests were positively associated with students’ academic performance. Further, studying more than two hours per day was positively correlated with better grades in medical school. Conclusion: Scores of the admission tests can serve as predictors for student performance in medical school. National studies are deemed essential to evaluate additional admission tests for medical school, an action that would minimize selection bias.

Prevalence of Obesity and its Association with Academic Performance and Other Factors among Jazan University Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Our result is supported by a study conducted in 2002 at Ain Shams University by Baker et al and the study showed that the most impactful lifestyle factors responsible for obesity are food consumption during stressful times and snacking between meals [16]. Thus, universities are required to provide students on on-campus activities that may reduce stress and more courses are required to train students on time management and to cope with stress [17,18].…”

Predictors of College Academic Achievement for Medical Students: The Case of Gondar University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ethiopia

“…Regarding to the relationship between the UEE score and academic achievement, the result of regression analysis showed that the UEE score was significantly and positively associated with pre-clinical and 5th year cumulative GPA, in line with others studies. 8,[36][37][38] Generally, the present study shows that the UEE score is a significant and positive predictor of medical students' university academic achievement, however, the amount of academic performance explained is quite low, with 32.7% and 24.4% in the pre-clinical and 5th year cumulative GPA, respectively. These variations are less than 40% leaving a large amount of variance still unexplained.…”

“…Research findings show that high school grade point average, UEE score, or standardized test score are assumed to be the best predictors of students' academic performance in higher education. [8][9][10] Several research reports in the literature, on the other hand, indicate that prior academic achievement is not the only determining factor of success in medical education and professional practice. [11][12][13] Studies have shown that, prior academic achievement accounts for only a portion of the variance in medical school performance and does not provide enough variance to allow meaningful differentiation on which to base selection decisions.…”