Selecting tomorrow's forensic psychologists: A fresh look at some familiarpredictors

The present study examined the use of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE- Verbal and GRE-Quantitative) and undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) t o predict long-term performance in an MA program in forensic psychology. Th e criterion measures were graduate grade point average (GGPA) and time to c ompletion (TTC). Data were available for 206 graduates. Regression analysis indicated that a linear combination of GRE-V, GRE-Q, and UGPA correlated 0 .63 with GGPA. Predictive efficiency was reduced by only 2% of the variance when GRE subscores are combined into a total score. The correlation with T TC was smaller (R = 0.31) but nonetheless translated into meaningful differ ences in student performance. Most noteworthy, GRE scores and UGPA appear t o predict better for forensic psychology than for social sciences in genera l.