A New Criterion for Screening Medical Applicants

Introduction. In the current screening system, new admissions are based on general intelligence as measured by universities entrance examination. Considering the fact that an important function of medical graduates is to educate the patients how to restore and take care of their health, communicative competence and skills would be, at least, as important as general intelligence. To show that language intelligence as measured by Iranian Language Aptitude Battery (ILAB) is of a higher predictive value in the screening of successful candidates than the general intelligence as measured by universities entrance examinations (konkur). Methods. An experimental method was used to show that the chance of communicative success of those who performed better on ILAB was significantly different from those with a poorer performance. The subjects were given ILAB at the beginning of the academic year to be grouped into the upper and lower groups. Both groups received their regular education in language and basic science courses. Their final grades at the end of the semester, an indication of their achievement, was compared with the corresponding predicted values they had received on ILAB at the beginning of the academic year, with their natural science average grade on the universities entrance examination (konkur) and their language grade on the same test. Findings. ILAB proved to be of a higher predictive value than any other such factors as language knowledge, or general intelligence as measured by the universities entrance exam. Results. Success of medical students in their studies would be predicted with much higher precision if we consider language intelligence as an additional factor in the screening of new admissions.