Correlation between admission criteria and academic performance of students in Dental Colleges of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa

ABSTRACT

Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan, since its inception [1998] has conducted 12 sets of Entrance Test, for the Medical and Dental Colleges of the province. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of entry test conducted by ETEA and subsequent performance of the students. A cohort of 386 dental students, who were admitted for the four-year program in the two public sector dental colleges of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa during the academic sessions 2000-2005, comprised the sample of the study. The association between the predictors [F.Sc, Entry test scores and overall merit] and the criterion [academic achievements/scores of dental students from first to final year] were analyzed using Pearson correlation techniques on SPSS-16. The data show significant correlation between predictor and criterion variables. Gender wise analysis revealed that the performance of female students was better than male students. Overall, our findings show a significant relationship between the predictor. variable and the academic achievement of dental students. However, the inclusion of additional predictors, such as interview or test of non-cognitive domains of the students in the admission criteria may improve the accuracy of admission decisions