Jones, R. F. & Mitchell, K. J. (1986). Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Predictive Validity of MCAT Scores. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

PURPOSE: The authors investigated the MCAT score differences and academic difficulty rates for Black and White examinees that entered American medical schools in 1978 and 1979.

METHOD and RESULTS: Mean MCAT scores for the six subtests for White students ranged from 8.0 to 8.5; for Blacks 4.8 to 5.6. Mean subgroup differences ranged from 4.8 to 5.6. Of this sample of medical students, 4.7 percent of the Whites and 28.5 percent of the Blacks experienced academic difficulty in medical school. Both Black and White students with MCAT scores below 8 had an increasing probability of academic difficulty. The authors cautioned that the data for Blacks were based on small sample sizes at individual score points.

CONCLUSION: The authors suggested that other preadmission variables than MCAT, such as research/ work experience, motivation, and social and psychological adjustment, may be related to success or failure in medical school. study looked at the relationship between the MCAT scores and undergraduate GPA of medical school applicants and the role that selectivity in admissions of undergraduate college plays in this relationship.

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