{"id":1195,"date":"2020-08-05T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T07:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/?post_type=issues&#038;p=1195"},"modified":"2024-12-16T14:37:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T06:37:57","slug":"upcoming6","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted: 13 June 2024<br \/>\r\nAccepted: 14 October 2024<br \/>\r\nPublished online: 7 January, TAPS 2025, 10(1), 36-47<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Sivapalan Sanchayan<sup>1<\/sup>, Sisira Dharmaratne<sup>2<\/sup>, Shalika Pathirana<sup>3<\/sup>, Pavithra Godamunne<sup>3<\/sup> &amp; Madawa Chandratilake<sup>3<\/sup><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i><sup><span lang=\"EN-GB\">1<\/span><\/sup><\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka; <sup>2<\/sup>Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia; Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka<\/span><\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Abstract<\/span><\/b><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Introduction:<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Selection for basic medical training is highly contextual. The use of cognitive aptitude tests, which commonly supplement measures of prior academic achievement in the selection process of medical schools internationally, is rarely reported from resource-constrained settings in South Asia. We report on the psychometric properties of an aptitude test designed based on the UCAT format, administered to first-year medical undergraduates to determine its utility.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Methods:<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The aptitude test was administered online to first-year medical students shortly after their admission to two medical faculties in Sri Lanka (n=328). The reliability of the test was determined using Cronbach\u2019s alpha. Overall and subtest scores were computed, and the scores of different demographic groups were compared using the t-test. Factor analysis of the subtests was performed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Results:<\/span><\/b><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The internal consistency of the test was 0.63. The difficulty and discrimination indices were within the acceptable range. The mean score of the aptitude test (AT) was 70.9\/100 (SD 8.88). The mean score for females was higher than for males (p=0.04). No statistically significant differences in AT scores were observed between different ethnicities or religions. The entry academic scores demonstrated a weak correlation with the overall AT score (Pearson\u2019s correlation coefficient r=0.27), verbal reasoning (r=0.24), the human body (r=0.19), quantitative reasoning (r=0.18), and situational judgement (r=0.128). Factor analysis indicated items that need revision.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Conclusion:<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The results indicate the potential value of aptitude tests in Sri Lanka and in similar jurisdictions where selection criteria have yet to expand beyond prior academic performance. A way forward in introducing such tests has been outlined.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Keywords<\/span><\/b><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">:<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Medical Student Selection, Medical Student Admission, Selection Criteria<\/span><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"template":"","issues_category":[12],"archive_category":[],"issue_type":[46],"volume_category":[],"class_list":["post-1195","issues","type-issues","status-publish","hentry","issues_category-original-articles","issue_type-upcoming-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Submitted: 13 June 2024 Accepted: 14 October 2024 Published online: 7 January, TAPS 2025, 10(1), 36-47 Sivapalan Sanchayan1, Sisira Dharmaratne2, Shalika Pathirana3, Pavithra Godamunne3 &amp; Madawa Chandratilake3 1Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka; 2Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia; Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Asia Pacific Scholar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-16T06:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/\",\"name\":\"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-05T07:04:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-16T06:37:57+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/\",\"name\":\"The Asia Pacific Scholar\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar","og_description":"Submitted: 13 June 2024 Accepted: 14 October 2024 Published online: 7 January, TAPS 2025, 10(1), 36-47 Sivapalan Sanchayan1, Sisira Dharmaratne2, Shalika Pathirana3, Pavithra Godamunne3 &amp; Madawa Chandratilake3 1Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka; 2Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia; Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/","og_site_name":"The Asia Pacific Scholar","article_modified_time":"2024-12-16T06:37:57+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/","url":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/","name":"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students - The Asia Pacific Scholar","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-08-05T07:04:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-16T06:37:57+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/issues\/upcoming6\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Psychometric properties of an aptitude test administered to Sri Lankan first-year medical students"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/","name":"The Asia Pacific Scholar","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues\/1195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issues"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issues_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues_category?post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"archive_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive_category?post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"issue_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_type?post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"volume_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.nus.edu.sg\/taps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/volume_category?post=1195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}