Admissions testing for entry to medicine
Introduction
With the publication of the Schwartz report into fair admissions to university, interest is growing in both a general admissions test for university applicants and specialist tests for some subject areas. Medical schools are increasingly selecting students using a wider set of objective criteria than academic results alone, and some schools in the UK are now either using or considering purpose-designed admissions tests.
Recent developments in medical education have highlighted the need to select applicants with well-rounded skills; students who will benefit most from the new curricula founded on self-directed and problem-based learning.
A professionallydeveloped and marked secure test can provide objective evidence of skills and abilities not directly measured or reported by A level or degree results.
A test of reasoning, problem-solving and communication used in conjunction with academic results gives weight to the skills of working with and understanding people, teamwork and information handling. This helps medical schools select the most suitable students from a large pool of well-qualified applicants. A wider range of entry criteria also gives a chance to capable students who might not succeed through traditional selection methods.
American practice
Selection tests for medicine have been used in the United States for many years; the Medical College Admission Test has been shown to be a good predictor of performance in undergraduate and postgraduate performance. Nearly all Australian and New Zealand medical schools now use admissions tests developed and administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). In the UK, there are now ten medical and veterinary schools using admissions tests: four use ACER’s GAMSAT UK - a test devised for UK graduate-entry programmes - and three use ACER’s new Medical School Admissions Test (MSAT); three medical and two veterinary schools are using the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) devised by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate.
These tests differ considerably in what they test, but all use a combination of multiple-choice and written-essay response formats, and last between two and four hours.
Admissions tests are not uncontroversial. Some student groups don’t like Schwartz’s recommendation for a national admissions test, saying that they favour those who can afford coaching.
But in a generic test of aptitudes, coaching is less relevant than for a content-based exam, and those applicants without very high grades get a chance to be considered.
Schwartz cautiously welcomed subjectspecific admissions tests where they were needed to provided additional data to academic qualifications, and were shown to be valid and reliable assessments. Cecily Aldous, who runs ACER’s medical admissions testing programmes, says “tests have to be carefully and professionally constructed to be acceptable to universities, applicants and the public.
Our teams of writers are expert in their fields and in test construction, and all questions in development must pass detailed critiquing, trial testing, statistical analysis and final review. It is also vital routinely to analyse candidate response data, and to conduct ongoing research into tests’ equity and validity.”
More research is definitely needed into the efficacy of tests in contributing to widening participation, and because of the relative recency of their introduction in Australia and the UK, data on their predictive power is only just becoming available. Nevertheless, many admissions officers and tutors are already convinced of the need for something to complement the traditional selection processes.
GAMSAT MSAT BMAT
Reasoning in Critical Reasoning Aptitude and Skills
Humanities and
Social Sciences
Written Communication Interpersonal Scientific Knowledge and
Understanding Applications
Reasoning in Written Writing task
Biological and Communication
Physical Sciences
For more information: www.acer.edu.au/msat
