On the predictive value of entry-level skills for successful studying in medical school

How to select medical students who will be successful during different stud y phases as well as later in their profession is a difficult problem. This study focuses on the predictive value of students' entry-level skills measu red by three multiple-choice science tests, the secondary school matriculat ion examination, and 'Learning-from-text' (LFT) tasks which were designed t o measure critical thinking skills. The subjects (N = 109) were those medical students who were accepted in the University of Helsinki Faculty of Medicine in 1988. The results showed tha t the three science tests predicted the medical course grades. Further, a L FT task intending to measure the ability to pull together the essentials of a text predicted the pace of studying during both basic and advanced studi es. LFT tasks intending to measure the deepest level of learning, i.e., the application of knowledge, predicted the grades obtained for the advanced c ourses.