Jones, B.J.; Seeman, R.E. How Does the New MCAT Correlate with Term 1 Medical School Performance? Paper presented at the Research in Medical Education Conference; November, 1993. Washington, D.C.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive validity of the 1991 MCAT scores for first-term medical school performance.

METHODS: MCAT scores for 45 of the entrants to Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in 1991 and 102 entrants in 1992 were correlated with first-term grades and final exam scores. Multiple regression was used to compute the correlation between preadmission data (MCAT and GPA) and first-term scores for the 1992 entrants.

RESULTS: The authors reported multiple correlations of .40 for behavioral sciences, .57 for overall biochemistry grades, and .43 for biochemistry case studies. MCAT Verbal Reasoning scores correlated significantly with behavioral science grades and biochemistry case studies. MCAT Physical and Biological Sciences scores most consistently correlated with biochemistry grades. Writing Sample scores most highly correlated with courses using essays on their final examinations.

CONCLUSIONS: The authors concluded that this study suggests MCAT scores will be useful in predicting performance in courses that measure similar abilities as the MCAT. The authors stated more research is needed to provide additional suport for using the MCAT in admission decisions.

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