Hojat, M., Erdmann, J.B., Veloski, J.J., Nasca, T.J., Callahan, C.A., Julian, E., & Peck, J. (2000). A Validity Study of the Writing Sample Section of the Medical College Admission Test. Academic Medicine, 75, 25S-27S.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive power of the Writing Sample section of the current version of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).

METHOD: Data for 1,776 matriculants (1,086 men, 690 women) at Jefferson Medical College between 1992 and 1999 were retrieved from the database of the Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education. The students were classified into three groups (top, middle, and bottom) based on their scores on the Writing Sample. Three sets of criteria were used: admission measures, performance in the basic sciences, and performance in clinical sciences and ratings of clinical competence. The three groups were compared with respect to the criterion measures by using analysis of variance for continuous measures, followed by the Duncan test and the Kruskal-Wallis test for class rank. Analysis of covariance was also employed to make statistical adjustments for baseline differences in the scores of other MCAT sections.

RESULTS: Comparisons of the top, middle, and bottom groups on the Writing Sample showed no significant difference for undergraduate science GPA, or for the Biological and Physical Sciences sections of the MCAT. However, significant differences were observed for undergraduate non-science GPA (p<.05), and the Verbal Reasoning test (p<.01). Although the top group consistently outperformed the bottom group in first- and second-year basic science courses, as well as on the USMLE Step 1, the differences were not statistically significant. However, there were statistically significant differences among the top, middle, and bottom groups on a number of performance measures in clinical disciplines. Both the top and the middle groups obtained significantly higher mean grades (p<.01) than did the low group on written examinations in the six core clerkships. A similar patter of findings was observed for medical school class rank. Results for the six measures of clinical competence in residency showed that the differences for ratings in interpersonal skills and attitudes were statistically significant (p<.05), where the top group was rated significantly higher than the bottom group. Although the differences in other areas of postgraduate competence did not reach the conventional level of statistical significance (p<.05), a consistent pattern was observed in which the highest average ratings were obtained by the top group, and the lowest by the bottom group.

CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study confirm the research hypothesis that scores on the Writing Section of the MCAT yield a closer association with measures of clinical competence than with achievement in the basic sciences. These findings provide support for the validity of the Writing Sample form a number of perspectives. We hypothesized that high scores on the Writing Sample would outperform others in clinical sciences evaluations and in ratings of clinical competence. The hypothesis was confirmed, providing support for the predictive validity of the test.

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