Six UK longitudinal cohort studies of medical student selection and performance (1972–2009 entry)

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

A set of six prospective cohort studies providing the data for the meta-regression: the Westminster Study (entry 1972–1980, with full AH5), the 1980, 1985 and 1990 St. Mary's cohort studies (with applicant as well as entrant data; the 1990 cohort also has an abbreviated AH5), the UCLMS Cohorts (entry 2001–2004, detailed follow-up including MRCP(UK)), and the UKCAT-12 Study (entry 2007–2009, 12 medical schools, largest study, UKCAT and first-year outcomes). Four are proper selection studies with applicant data enabling range-restriction correction; outcomes span basic medical science, finals, MRCP(UK) and Specialist Register entry.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Applicant as well as entrant predictor distributions for range-restriction correction (available in four of the six studies)
• Longitudinal linkage of selection data to undergraduate and postgraduate outcomes via GMC numbers and examination records

Constraints

• The Westminster and UCLMS cohorts have entrant data only, so selection ratios for them were modeled rather than observed
• UKCAT-12 outcomes analyzed here are limited to first-year performance

Target Learners

• UK medical school applicants and entrants, 1972–2009 entry years

Learning Goals

• predicting undergraduate medical examination performance and postgraduate outcomes (MRCP(UK), Specialist Register) from secondary-school attainment and aptitude tests

Claims

Related Designs

Examples

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Key Sources

• McManus IC, Dewberry Chris, Nicholson Sandra, Dowell Jonathan S, Woolf Katherine, Potts Henry WW. (2013). Construct-level predictive validity of educational attainment and intellectual aptitude tests in medical student selection: meta-regression of six UK longitudinal studies. BMC Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3827328/

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	six-uk-medical-selection-cohorts
title	Six UK longitudinal cohort studies of medical student selection and performance (1972–2009 entry)
description	A set of six prospective cohort studies providing the data for the meta-regression: the Westminster Study (entry 1972–1980, with full AH5), the 1980, 1985 and 1990 St.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-01
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — mcmanus-ic-2013

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