Is the UCAT appropriate for selecting undergraduate medical students?

Powis, David A; Munro, Don; Bore, Miles R

doi:10.5694/mja2.50906

Topics

Non‐academic personal qualities are also desirable in doctors: higher mental abilities, empathy, ethics, creativity

Medicine is an enduringly popular career choice for several reasons, including the desire to heal the sick and to improve people’s health, but for many, no doubt, also the prospect of guaranteed employment with a satisfactory income and the elevated social status enjoyed by doctors. The net result is that for most medical schools there have been, and still are, far more applicants than places available.1,2,3 This poses an annual selection dilemma.

University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW

Correspondence: david.powis@newcastle.edu.au

Competing interests:

We developed the Personal Qualities Assessment (www.pqa.net.au) and receive royalties from institutions that use it in student selection procedures.

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