Is the admission test at institute of business administration a good predictor of final professional test grades?

ABSTRACT

To assess the predictor validity of the IBA admission test for academic performance of MBBS and BDS students at KM and DC. Setting: Karachi Medical and Dental College results of admission test and final professional exams were used for analysis. Methodology: Data based study using the results of first three batches of KM and DC which graduated in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Data was entered on SPSS-8 and correlation and regression analysis was done on the same. The average IBA score was 68.52 and final professional score was 1730.78 for 116 MBBS students. The correlation co-efficient R was.057 meaning weak or no relationship and when IBA score was used as a predictor, it was not significant [P=0.544]. The results of 30 BDS students was that their average IBA score was 66.97 and final professional score was 509.7. The results were correlated and R was -.172 meaning negative weak or no relationship, and when IBA score was used as a predictor, the B came out to be -.971 that was not significant [P=0.364]. Conclusions and suggestion These results show that there is no significant positive relationship between the IBA scores and the academic achievement of MBBS students. For the BDS students, there is a negative relationship between the IBA scores and the academic achievement. Hence, we need to revisit the admission test and look at the instrument itself to see which sections of the test are good predictors and how can they be improved