ERIC Number: EJ808689
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Aug
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1382-4996
EISSN: N/A
Impact of Field of Study, College and Year on Calculation of Cumulative Grade Point Average
Trail, Carla; Reiter, Harold I.; Bridge, Michelle; Stefanowska, Patricia; Schmuck, Marylou; Norman, Geoff
Advances in Health Sciences Education, v13 n3 p253-261 Aug 2008
A consistent finding from many reviews is that undergraduate Grade Point Average (uGPA) is a key predictor of academic success in medical school. Curiously, while uGPA has established predictive validity, little is known about its reliability. For a variety of reasons, medical schools use different weighting schemas to combine years of study. Additional concerns relate to the equivalence of grades obtained from different fields of study and institutions, with little hard data to guide conclusions. At the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine Class of 2007 at McMaster University, every undergraduate grade of 2,138 applicants, along with field of study and post-secondary educational institution, was analyzed. Individual grades were aggregated into an overall uGPA using published algorithms from several medical school, and correlated with a non-weighted sum. Correlations of the different schemas with equal weights ranged from 0.973 to 0.990. The extent of the difference between fields of study was small, accounting for only 1.5% of the variance. However, differences among 16 Ontario universities were larger, and accounted for 9.3% of the variance. The results of this study suggest that all weighting schemas are virtually equivalent, making any formulation reasonable. Differences by field of study are small, but do not show any bias against non-science students. Differences by institution are larger, amounting to a range in average score from 78.7 to 84.6; however it is not clear whether this reflects candidate ability or institutional policy, so attempts to correct for institution may be difficult.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Study, Grade Point Average, Predictor Variables, Academic Achievement, Medical Schools, Predictive Validity, Reliability, Foreign Countries, Alumni, Grades (Scholastic), Majors (Students), Educational Background
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A