How Does the Entrance Exam Have Influence on Educational Success of Doctoral Medical Students in Basic Science Grade?

Background: Considering the importance of entering doctoral students to universities with hard competition, in order to detect the predictive power of entrance exam grade in educational achievement in early years, we attempted to investigate the efficacy of entrance exam with basic scientific test. Methods: The existing data from national organization for education testing and education center of Kerman University of medical sciences were collected in 300 students (medical, dental, pharmacology) in consecutive years (2005-6). Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis were used. Results: In multivariate regression model, the only two predictive lessons for success in basic scientific test in medical students were biology and Arabic language with determine coefficient (DC) 0.44, in dental students was chemistry (DC=0.48) and in pharmacology students were biology and physics (DC=0.46).In addition, there was no correlation between ranking in entrance exam and basic scientific test grade in all groups. Conclusion: As we did not predict, there was no strong relationship between entrance exam grades and basic scientific test. This is the important point that we must know about this weak relationship. These issues could show the low validity of entrance exam, basic scientific tests or remarkable changes in educational level of students before entering university and early years of entering universities.